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58 - Tale
of the Fox and the Crow
A fox
lived in a cave in a mountain and as often a cub was born to him and grew
big, he would eat the young one, because he felt very hungry. If he left
the cub alive and bred it and preserved it, he could have enjoyed its
children. Yet this was very grievous to him.
Now, a
crow had made the nest on a tree near that mountain. When the fox saw him,
he thought that he would extend the friendship with this crow so that he
would help him to get his daily bread, because the crow could do many things in
such matters, which he himself could not do. So he went to the crow and
spoke to him - "I salute you, O Crow. You are my neighbor and you have a
right on me because I am your neighbor. Also I love you very much. What do
you say?" The crow replied - "Although the true speech is the
best speech but these words are not coming out from your heart that is why
you are my enemy - I am the eaten and you are the eater. I am the bird
kind and you are the beast kind, that is why this friendship cannot be
materialized."
The
fox said - "I wish to be with you to the end that we may help each
other. I have many tales of the goodness of friendship I can tell you if
you wish to hear." The crow said - "You can tell the stories to
me so that I can judge." The fox said - "Then listen to this
story of a flea and a mouse. Once upon a time, there lived a merchant who
had lots of money and merchandise. One night a flea took shelter in the
merchant's carpet-bed and finding his body soft and being hungry and
thirsty drank his blood. The merchant woke by the smart of the bite and
called a slave-girl and servants. They tried to search for the flea. But
the flea had fled and hid in a mouse's home.
When
the mouse saw him, she asked him - "Why have you come to me? You
are not of my nature, nor of my kind." The flea said - "I have
come to take refuge in your house from slaughtering. I am not going to
make any mischief or anything else with you so that you will have to leave
your house. I will soon repay your favor." Hearing this the mouse
said - "If what you are saying is true, you may stay here. Do not be
sad for the loss of blood of the merchant, be content, it is safer
here." The flea said - "I heard you and I will obey you."
So the tie of love arose between them, and he used to visit merchant's bed
by night and stay with mouse by day.
One
day, it so happened, that the merchant brought many Deenaars home and
began to turn them over. When the mouse heard the sound of the coin, she
put her head out of the hole and gazed at them till he put them under his
pillow and went to bed. She said to flea - "You have not seen the
fortune the merchant has. Do you know any way to bring any Deenaar to
us?" Flea said - "It is not a good idea until one has the
ability to do it, like the sparrow which picks up grain and falls into the
net and is caught by the hunter. You don't have the strength to take the
Deenaars and to transport them to your house, nor I have the force to do
this. On the contrary, I could not carry even a single coin from them; but what
you have to do with them?"
The
mouse said - "I have made 70 openings for my house, but I have set a
separate place to keep the costly things, and if you cannot drive the
merchant out of the house, there is no success for me, and that will be
our fate." "OK, I will try to drive him out of the house for
you." That night, he bit the merchant very hard several times, so he
lost patience, went out and slept on the bench outside the door till
morning. Meanwhile the mouse came and started carrying Deenaars into her
hole till she carried all of them." The fox continued - "Thus
the flea helped the mouse."
The
crow said - "It all depends upon the individual whether he wants to
repay or not to repay. If I show you, who is my enemy, a favor, I will be cut
off from the world, because you are crafty and cunning and must not
be trusted upon oath. Just now I heard the story your treachery with your
mate wolf that how did you behave with him. You dealt with him when he was
of your own kind, and you had been with him for some time, still you did
not spare him; then how can I trust you as what will be your dealing with
the one who is not of your own kind and is your enemy. Nor I can compare
you and me with a falcon and the birds." "How?"
The
crow answered - "Once there was a falcon who was very cruel in his
youth so the hunters used to fear him. He always injured other birds. As
he grew old, he became weak, so his power became less but at the same time
his cunningness increased. Now he used to eat by fraud and cheating. And you are like
this. Even if you fail yourself, your cunningness will never fail. If you will
not get food straightway, you will use fraud to get it. But I am not of
that kind. I have sharp mind and eyes. I fear for you, lest if you face a
stringer force than yourself, then you will suffer as the sparrow
suffered." Fox asked - "How the sparrow suffered, tell me its
tale?"
The
crow replied - "Once a sparrow was sitting over a sheep, when he
looked about, he saw a great eagle coming down upon a newly born lamb and
carry it off in his claws and fly away. At this the sparrow clapped his
wings and said - "I will also do this." And he mimicked greater
than he. So he flew down, sat on a fat ram. As soon as he sat on it, he
flapped his wings to fly away but his feet became tangled in his wool, and
however he tried hard, he could not fly. The shepherd was looking on all
this - the previous incident and this one too. So he came up to him, seized
him, tied his feet with a twine, and threw it to his children. So you are
like this. Go and live in peace."
The
fox ground his teeth in disappointment and sorrow. Hearing the sound of
his teeth, the crow said to him - "What sound you are making by your
teeth?" Answered the fox - "I am grinding my teeth because you
are a greater rascal than myself." And went away to his home.
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