The Clever Rabbit and the Greedy Tiger

A greedy tiger named Bagha lived in a forest where he wanted everything his own way. He frightened animals from the best paths and growled whenever anyone came near his shady resting place. At last, he demanded that one animal come to him each day for his dinner. The forest grew quiet with worry. Even the birds stopped singing when his heavy footsteps passed beneath their trees.

When it was Sasha the rabbit's turn, her friends gathered around her. "You are too small to face him," whispered a deer. Sasha's paws trembled, but she knew that running away would leave everyone else in danger. She had watched Bagha for many days. He was strong, but he never paused to question anything that hurt his pride. Perhaps that weakness could do what strength could not.

Sasha walked very slowly through the forest, thinking as she went. Beside an old path stood a deep, still pond surrounded by stone. Its water reflected the branches so clearly that they looked like another forest underneath. Sasha leaned over and saw her own face. She moved an ear; the reflected rabbit moved too. A plan began to form. She took a deep breath and continued toward Bagha's den.

"You're late!" roared the tiger when she arrived. Sasha bowed, keeping a careful distance. "Forgive me," she said. "Another tiger stopped me. He says this forest belongs to him, and he would not let me pass." Bagha sprang to his feet. "Another tiger? In my forest?" His tail lashed against a bush. Sasha could see that he had forgotten everything except the thought of a rival.

"Show me!" he growled. Sasha led him toward the pond, choosing a path where she could stay well ahead. "He hides down there," she said, pointing at the water from a safe patch of ground. Bagha leaned over the stone edge. A tiger glared back at him. He bared his teeth, and the tiger bared its teeth too. He had never stopped long enough to understand a reflection.

Bagha roared into the hollow space around the pond. His voice echoed from the stones, sounding like an answer. "You dare challenge me?" he shouted. Sasha stepped farther away. Without looking or thinking, Bagha leapt into the water to fight the imagined tiger. An enormous splash broke the reflection into a thousand trembling pieces. Suddenly, there was no rival at all, only cold water and his own furious spluttering.

Bagha struggled until he reached the shallow side and crawled out, soaked and ashamed. Wet leaves clung to his whiskers. Sasha waited on a distant rise, ready to run if she needed to. "There was no other tiger," Bagha muttered as the truth finally reached him. He looked around and imagined every animal hearing about his foolish jump. Without another demand, he slunk away to a distant part of the forest.

The animals watched until they were certain he had gone. Then they cheered for Sasha. She was still small, and her paws still shook a little, but she had given herself time to think when Bagha had not. That evening, songs returned to the trees. The deer asked how she had been so brave. "I was afraid," Sasha admitted, "but I kept using my head." The forest remembered that wisdom could find a way where strength only saw a fight.

Moral: Wisdom can defeat strength.