The Clever Rabbit and the Lion

Long ago, in a deep green forest, there lived a lion called Bhasuraka.

He was big and strong, with a great shaggy mane, and he was very greedy. Every day he went hunting, and every day he caught far more animals than he could ever eat. The deer, the rabbits, the boars and the buffaloes all lived in fear.

A meeting in the forest

At last the animals held a meeting under a big banyan tree.

"We can't go on like this," said an old deer. "Soon there will be no one left in the forest at all."

So they went together to the lion's den, trembling, and the old deer spoke for them.

"Your Majesty," he said, "you don't need to go hunting any more. Every day, one of us will come to you for your dinner. That way you can rest, and the rest of us can live in peace."

The lion thought about it. He liked the idea of lying in his den all day.

"Very well," he growled. "But if my dinner is ever late, even once, I'll hunt every one of you!"

The rabbit's turn

So every day, one animal walked sadly to the lion's den. Then one morning, it was the turn of a small rabbit.

The rabbit's friends were crying. But the rabbit's whiskers were twitching. He was thinking.

"Don't cry," he said. "I have an idea."

He set off for the lion's den. But he did not hurry. He stopped to nibble some clover. He sat by a stream and watched the fish. He hopped very slowly along the path.

By the time he reached the den, the sun was low in the sky.

The lion was pacing up and down, and his tummy was rumbling like thunder.

"You!" he roared. "You're tiny, and you're late! Why have the animals sent me such a small dinner, and so late?"

The rabbit bowed low.

"Your Majesty, it isn't our fault," he said. "The animals sent five rabbits to you this morning. But on the way, another lion jumped out and stopped us. He said he was the king of this forest. He kept the other four rabbits, and he sent me to tell you."

Another king?

The lion's eyes blazed. "Another king? In my forest? Take me to him at once!"

"Follow me, Your Majesty," said the rabbit.

He led the lion through the trees to an old, deep well. The water lay far down at the bottom, still and dark.

"He lives down there, Your Majesty," whispered the rabbit. "In his fort."

The lion stepped up to the edge of the well and looked down.

There, deep in the water, he saw a great lion with a shaggy mane, glaring back up at him.

The lion roared. And from deep inside the well came an even louder roar, booming back at him: ROAR!

That was too much for Bhasuraka. In a fury, he leapt into the well to fight the other lion, with a tremendous splash.

But of course, there was no other lion. It was only his own reflection in the water. And Bhasuraka was never seen in the forest again.

A forest at peace

The little rabbit hopped all the way back to the banyan tree.

"You can stop crying," he told his friends. "The lion won't trouble anyone ever again."

The animals cheered. They lifted the rabbit up on their shoulders, and that night there was a great feast of clover and berries and sweet grass in the forest, with music and dancing until the moon came up.

The smallest animal in the forest had saved them all, not with sharp claws or a loud roar, but with a clever idea.

About this story

This fable comes from the Panchatantra, a collection of animal stories written in ancient India, more than 1,500 years ago, to teach young princes how to think wisely. It is one of the best-known stories in India, told in many languages. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.