the smart jackal

	Once upon a time, there lived sherdil, the lion king in a dense forest. For his counsellors he had chatur, the jackal, Bheru, the wolf, and Bhol, the camel! One day, sherdil returned from his hunt all hurt and bruised as he had encountered a mad elephant. In his bruised state he could hardly move, leave alone go out for hunt. This put his counsellors in a fix for all of them depended on sherdil for their food. Everyday sherdil would bring in a dead animal and after having had his fill, would let his counsellors enjoy the meagre leftovers.
	To get over this situation chatur thought of a plan. He called Bhola aside and whispered in his ear. "Friends, all of us have served sherdil for years and he has provided food and other luxuries for us. Now is the time for us to repay him. See how he starves and grows thin for lack of food". At this Bhola said, "You are a concerned fellow, Chatur. I am happy to see that. But how do we go about repaying his Highness?" "It’s simple," said the shy jackal. "Just sacrifice your body for the king’s food. But before that ask him to pledge you to the Death God, so that you may regain another body soon after hour death." Bhola, being a simpleton, agreed to this and went to sherdil. There he suggested his sacrificial plan to the king. Hearing this, sherdil was moved to tears but his hunger overcame him and he pounced at Bhola and killed him instantly. Now that food had been arranged for the lion king, Chatur, his cunningness nagging him, felt greedy and wanted the camel all for himself. So he thought of plan.
	Chatur went to sherdil and said, "Your Highness, here is food for all after so many days. You being our king must go to the river and have a bath and offer a thanks giving prayer to god on behalf of all of us. Meanwhile I and Bheru shall guard the food." To this suggestion, sherdil readily agreed and went towards the river. Now Chatur wanted to get rid of Bheru, the wolf. To the dumb wolf he said, "Brother, you have also been hungry for so many days. Go on, eat a part of the camel meat. I will signal you from a distance when the king returns from his bath. " Assured by chatur, Bheru dug at bhola’s body and took a delicious bite of his heart. Just when Bheru started to enjoy the food, chatur said in a panicky voice, "Brother, be quick, drop the bite from your mouth for his Highness is returning from his prayers. " Hearing this Bheru dropped the meat and at once put on an innocent expression. When sherdil reached the spot, he was enrages and roared loudly, "who has partaken of my hunt without my permission?"
	Bheru with an innocent yet expectant face looked at Chatur but the shy jackal promptly replied, "Your Highness, Bheru grew impatient and partook of you royal reast." Enraged that he was cheated by the wolf, sherdil chased the scared wolf with the intention to kill. But kind at heart as sherdil was, he let Bheru escape as he did not want to kill a faithful counsellor of his.
	Just when sherdil was returning after the chase, he heard a lot of ruckus. Unseen by him a caravan of gypsies was passing through the forest. The cattle owned by the gypsies had bells and anklets on their feet and the gypsies were beating drums to scare and keep away wild animals. At this din sherdil was scared. He ran to chatur, the jackal, his trusted counsellor, and enquired of the noise. Now chatur had already spotted the caravan from afar and was eagerly waiting with his cunning plan.
	"Your Highness", said chatur, "Beware you have angered the Death God to whom you had pledged Bhola’s Body. Now he is angered and is approaching with his army to kill you. His wrath is to be feared by all. He is very upset as you killed Bhola, a simpleton and a faithful servant, before his assigned time of death. Sir, I advise you to leave right now, for as I said the Death god’s anger is fierce and destructive. I beg you to leave the forest immediately and leave behind Bhola’s body too. I shall try to cool down the angry Death god by offering him the untouched body of Bhola." Hearing this, the lion king got frightened and immediately ran away to save his skin. Thus, chatur sat down to a delicious meal which lasted him for many days. Moral: Blind faith brings no benefit.