Stories from Hithopadhesha

The Blue Jackal

Once a jackal which had sneaked into the village fell into a large tub full of indigo dye. Frightened by the dark colour of the liquid, he ran back to the forest. Then he stumbled upon an idea. Accordingly he went to his fellow people and declared himself as the messenger of God. Then he declared himself as the king of the forest.

Other jackals who looked at him were frightened by his apearance, and obeyed what he said. The other animals of the forest also started prostrating before him. He made some of the jackals his ministers. After sometime, he also added the tiger, the lion and someother wild animals to his jungle cabinet. They too were forced to obey him because of the frightening nature of his appearance.

After a while, the blue jackal became greedy for power. So the other jackals planned to trap the blue jackal and formulated a plan. One day, all the jackals went near the blue jackal and started howling. unable to resist the temptation to respond to the howl of all the jackals, the blue jackal joined them. Angered by the fact that a jackal had ruled over them all this time, the lion, in a fit of rage, killed him. The others later devoured him. And that was the end of the blue jackal.

Moral: A fool who leaves his own people and allies with the enemy will eventually be killed by them - which is what happened to the blue jackal.