The Rabbits and the Moon Lake
A thirsty elephant herd tramples a rabbit colony flat on its way to water. One rabbit climbs a rock and announces that he is the Moon's envoy.
In a certain forest a great elephant named Chaturdanta led the herd. Once a long drought came; the pools dried and the calves began dying of thirst.
The elephants said to their king: "Master, our young are dying of thirst; find us water." Chaturdanta thought a while and said: "In a lonely region there is a great lake called Chandrasaras, Moon Lake, always full from the underground Ganga. Let us go there." After five nights' march they reached it and drank their fill.
But the ground all round that lake was soft and sandy and honeycombed with rabbit burrows. Under the elephants' feet a great many rabbits were crushed — one with its skull broken, one with a shattered thigh, one with a broken back.
When the herd had gone, the survivors gathered with tears in their eyes: "We are finished. That herd will come every day now and our whole race will end. An elephant kills by touching, a snake by smelling, a king by governing, and a wicked man by paying you compliments." One said: "Let us leave the country." Then an old rabbit said: "No. One does not abandon the place of one's fathers so lightly. We shall put fear into them by a contrivance, so that they never come again — and the contrivance is to send a clever envoy."
A quick-tongued rabbit named Lambakarna was chosen. He climbed a high rock on the elephants' path and called out to the returning herd-lord: "Halt, wicked elephant!" Astonished, Chaturdanta asked: "Who are you?"
He said: "I am Lambakarna the rabbit, a dweller in the circle of the moon. The blessed Moon has sent me to you as his envoy — and an envoy who reports truly commits no offence. The Lord says: 'You came with your herd and killed the rabbits under my protection at Moon Lake, and wrecked their homes. That lake is mine. Do not do so again.'"
Frightened, the elephant said: "Then where is my lord the Moon? I wish to make obeisance." The rabbit said: "Come, and I will show you alone."
At night he brought him to the edge of the lake, where the moon's reflection trembled on the water. He said: "There is our master — seated in meditation within the water. Bow quickly and go, or he will be angry."
The elephant put his trunk into the water to salute — the water shivered and that one moon broke into a hundred pieces. The rabbit cried: "You have angered our lord twice over!" Shaking with fear, the elephant bowed again and again and went away — and from that day the rabbits lived at that lake in peace.
उपदेशेन महतां सिद्धिः संजायते परा । शशिनोऽपदेशेन वसन्ति शशकाः सुखम् ॥
Moral: Great ends are gained by a well-placed contrivance: on the mere pretext of the moon, the rabbits went on living in peace.
From the Panchatantra, Book III — Of Crows and Owls.
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