The Lion and the Rabbit

5-7 min read
14 pages

The lion and the rabbit, a Panchatantra tale to read aloud. One animal a day is the deal, and the smallest of them arrives late on purpose.

There was a lion in a forest who killed far more than he could eat. He killed in the morning because he was hungry and in the afternoon because he was bored, and the forest was emptying out.

So the animals went to him together — the deer, the boar, the buffalo, the birds — and made him an offer. «Stay where you are,» they said. «One of us will come to you every day. You will never have to hunt again.»

The lion thought it a very good arrangement, and for a while it worked.

Then one day it was the rabbits' turn, and the rabbit they chose was the smallest and the cleverest, and he did not go at dawn as he was supposed to.

He went at noon. He walked. He stopped to look at things on the way.

The lion had been waiting since sunrise and was in a state that made the birds leave the tree above him. «You,» he said. «You are late, and you are also extremely small.»

«I am very sorry,» said the rabbit, out of breath. «There were four of us coming, to make up the weight. But on the road we met another lion, and he ate three of them, and he let me go only to bring you a message.»

«Another lion,» said the lion. «In my forest.» «He says the forest is his,» said the rabbit. «He said to tell you so.»

«Take me to him,» said the lion.

The rabbit led him a long way, to the old stone well at the edge of the forest, where the water lay far down and very still.

«He lives in there,» said the rabbit. «Look over the edge and you will see him.»

The lion put his head over the rim of the well. Down in the dark water a lion looked back up at him, and when he roared, the other lion roared exactly as loudly at exactly the same moment.

That settled it. He went over the edge to deal with the intruder, and the well was deep, and the water closed over the argument.

The rabbit walked home slowly, the way he had come, and after that the animals of that forest went back to arranging their own days.

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Text source: From the Panchatantra, the Sanskrit collection of animal fables compiled around 300 BC. Public domain. The text was written anew for Marytale — it is not a reprint of anyone else's version.

Want to know where these stories come from? The articles are here

The Lion and the Rabbit

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