Panchatantra

“Numskull and the Rabbit” is an Indian fable from the Panchatantra. A fable is said to teach a lesson about conduct called moral. It features animal characters (like Numskull the lion, the Rabbit and the other animals in the forest) that behave like humans. “Numskull and the Rabbit” tells the story of a cruel and proud lion king, named Numskull, and a clever rabbit. Numskull wants to eat all the animals in the forest, so the animals come up with a plan. The plan is that each day one of them will go to the lion to be eaten. But when the rabbit’s turn comes, he does not want to be eaten, so he has an idea to outsmart Numskull. He gets late to the lion’s cave and tells him that he is late because of another lion that ate his supposed companions rabbits and wants to claim Numskull’s territory as his. The lion in his anger follows the rabbit to the well where he sees his reflection in the water. And thinking the reflection is the other lion; he falls down and dies there. I think the story has two important morals for me. The first one is that a king or leader should be responsible and kind with his subordinates, because they are many and might want to outsmart him. And the second one is that a person full of pride could be victim of his anger and feelings in a decisive moment and can be easily outsmarted and treated or being seen like a fool. I like the story because it is easy to understand and entertaining because of the animal characters. It also takes an unexpected development at the end. And besides all that, it gives you valuable lessons altogether with good rhymes.