Once upon a time, a jackal by the name of Ramaiya lived in a jungle. He was a bit lazy and was always looking for ways to get food without working too hard. One day he was looking around one day looking for food since he was so hungry. He came across a large drum while walking. A delicate branch that was growing at the tree's root impacted the drum when the wind blew, creating the sound of a drum beat
The jackal gave the drum a thorough turn over before beginning to beat it with his front paws. A sound came from the drum. The jackal thought for a while and wrongly concluded that a little animal must be inside to make this noise
He made a strategy to try and get the Animal out without having to put too much effort. The jackal started to pound the drum with both of his front paws. The entire jungle was alive with the sound of drumming.
A leopard approached the jackal after being drawn to the drum's sound. "Your Majesty, there is some animal hidden inside the drum," the jackal told the leopard. You can rip off the top of the drum and catch your victim inside thanks to your strong teeth and claws.
The leopard was famished. So he used his massive paws to strike the drum's top. The top tore open but there was no animal . The drum had no contents.
The leopard was furious when he saw the empty drum and told the jackal, "My time was wasted by you. The drum has no food. I'll kill you and eat you."
The leopard leapt on the Jackal and made him his dinner that night
Moral of the story:
There are two morals in this short story. Teh first one is we should never be lazy, if we need something we should be willing to work for it. In the above story the Jackal was being greedy. He didnt want to put in the effort to hunt and he was trying find short cuts. This usually leads to disaster.
The second moral of the story is that we should not jump to conclusions about things without getting all the details. The jackal decided that there had to be a small animal inside. He did not have any facts but he just made a conclusion.
Both these mistakes cost very dearly to him
A note to the parent:
This story is adapted from the Panchantantra tales. Panchantantra tales are old Indian tales with morals relevant even in today's context. These stories are written in simple English for kids to read by themselves. You may also read aloud with the child to help them improve their reading skills.
