The Potter with the Battle Scar

In a certain place there lived a potter. One day, running fast, he fell on the sharp shard of a half-broken pot. The shard split his forehead open and the blood ran. Somehow he got up and made his way home.

The wound was badly treated, and when it healed it left a terrible, savage scar.

Some time later a famine came to that country. Faint with hunger, the potter went abroad with some royal servants and took service with a king.

Seeing that fearsome scar on his forehead, the king thought: "This man must be a hero; certainly he got that wound in some great battle." And he began to give him particular honour above all his warriors. Seeing the favour he enjoyed, the other officers said nothing.

Then one day preparations for war were under way — elephants being caparisoned, horses tested, weapons made ready. At that moment the king called him aside and asked: "Prince! What is your name? Of what family are you? And in what battle did you take that wound on your forehead?"

He said: "Master, I am no warrior. I am a potter named Yudhishthira. Once, having drunk, I was running and fell on the shard of a broken pot; that shard split my forehead — this is the mark of it."

Hearing this the king was mortified and thought: "This potter has taken me in." He said: "Sir, leave here at once."

He said: "Master, do not do so; see my valour in the field!" The king said: "Even if you had every virtue, still go — you are brave, and learned, and good to look at; but in the family you were born into, elephants are not killed."

शूरश्च कृतविद्यश्च दर्शनीयोऽसि पुत्रक । यस्मिन्कुले त्वमुत्पन्नो गजस्तत्र न हन्यते ॥

Moral: You are brave, my boy, and learned, and good to look at — but in the family you were born into, elephants are not killed.

From the Panchatantra, Book IV — Loss of Gains.