The Rabbit, the Partridge and the Pious Cat

In the hollow at the foot of a tree lived a partridge named Kapinjala. He and his companions would gather at evening to tell tales of old lives and holy places, and passed their time happily.

One day Kapinjala went off with other birds to a field of ripening rice, and for many days did not come back. His friends worried — "Has he been snared somewhere, or killed?"

Meanwhile a rabbit named Shighraga came by at evening, found the hollow empty, moved in, and settled there.

After many days Kapinjala came home, plump from the rice, and found the rabbit sitting in it. He said: "You have done wrong to occupy my dwelling; get out at once." The rabbit said: "This is not yours but mine. Why speak harshly for nothing? A well, a tank, a pool, a temple, a tree — once abandoned, nobody has any further claim on them."

The two began quoting law at each other. The rabbit said: "Ten years' enjoyment settles a title — that is the rule among men." Kapinjala said: "Men's rule is for men; for birds, what the sages have said is authority." In the end both said: "Come, let us ask someone for a judgement."

On the way, on a riverbank, they saw a wild cat named Tikshnadanta. He sat on a mat of kusha grass in the dress of an ascetic, eyes half closed, both arms raised, face to the sun — reciting loudly on non-violence and duty: "This world is hollow, life lasts a moment, there is no road but righteousness. He who kills living creatures goes to a terrible hell."

The two were suspicious — "He is our natural enemy; let us ask from a distance." But he said sweetly: "Speak louder, friends. I am old and hard of hearing. Come close and state your dispute clearly at my ear, so that I may know it and judge rightly — for one who pronounces judgement in an assembly without hearing the case goes to hell."

Trusting his pious talk, they went close and began telling their case at his ear. In that instant he pinned one under a claw and caught the other in his teeth — and killed and ate them both.

So it is said: those who take a base creature for a judge and go looking for justice are both destroyed.

क्षुद्रमर्थपतिं प्राप्य न्यायान्वेषणतत्परौ । उभावपि क्षयं यातौ पुरा शशककपिञ्जलौ ॥

Moral: Having taken a base creature for their judge, both of them — rabbit and partridge — intent on getting justice, went to their destruction.

From the Panchatantra, Book III — Of Crows and Owls.