The Cave That Talked

Once upon a time there was a lion which was very hungry. It was searching for food but did not find any animal to kill and was getting hungrier and hungrier by the minute. While it was roaming, it came upon a cave.

Seeing it, the lion thought that there must be an animal living in the cave. So it waited behind some bushes for the animal to come out of the cave so that it can pounce on it and kill it for it's food. It waited for a long time but no animal came out of the cave. After some time the lion thought that the animal might have gone out so the best thing to do would be to go inside and wait for the animal to come. So it went in and hid himself.

The cave was the home of a jackal and it soon came back after the lion went in. But the jackal was no ordinary one, it was very intelligent. As it was about to enter it's cave it saw the footprints of the lion and thought they belonged to some big animal and knew it was dangerous to go inside as it must be still in there. So it decided to find out for sure.

In loud voice the jackal said, "Hello Cave! Hello Cave!" There was total silence. Then the jackel said, "Hello dear Cave, what's the matter? You always welcome me when I get home, why are you so silent today? If you don't reply I shall go to another cave."

The lion which was hiding inside thought, probably this cave always welcomes the jackal but today it is afraid since I am there inside. Afraid that jackal might go away if not welcomed, it roared back, "Welcome home dear friend, welcome."

The clever jackal cleared it's suspicion and smiled to itself thinking that the lion was indeed very hungry and fled the place. ,

-From Panchatantra

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