The Elephant and the Bad Company
Also known as Dubbalakattha Jataka
- 3 minute read
- Ages 6-10
- Jataka Tales
The King of Benares had a state elephant who was famous for his gentleness.
He had never hurt anybody. Children were lifted onto his back at festivals. He would kneel for anyone who could not climb, and he could be led by a rope held by a child.
His stable stood at the edge of the palace grounds, against the outer wall.
The thieves
On the other side of that wall was a piece of waste ground, and a gang of thieves began meeting there at night to divide what they had stolen and talk.
They talked a great deal, and they were not quiet.
Night after night, a few feet from the elephant's head, they discussed the work: how to get through a window without waking a house, what to do about a man who wakes up, that hesitating gets you caught, that the ones who are willing to strike first are the ones who never get caught at all.
The elephant lay in the dark and listened, because there was nothing else to listen to.
And after some weeks he concluded that this was how the world worked and that he had been doing it wrong.
The change
One morning the keeper came in as usual, and the elephant killed him.
He killed the man who came after that, and then he broke out of the stable, and by the time they got him contained there were several dead and the whole palace was in a state of terror.
The King sent for his wisest minister.
The diagnosis
The minister examined the elephant from a distance and found him in perfect health. No wound, no fever, nothing in the eyes, no sign of pain anywhere.
So he asked a different question.
"Who has been near this stable? Who has he been able to hear?"
They made enquiries, and found the waste ground, and found the thieves, and found out what had been discussed there every night for weeks.
The minister went to the King.
"Your elephant is not ill and he is not mad," he said. "He has been listening to thieves through a wall for two months and he has learned what they taught him. Clear that ground. Then send holy men and good men to sit outside his stable each night and talk to each other about kindness and restraint, within his hearing, and let him listen to that instead."
The King did it.
The thieves were driven off, and for weeks afterwards good men sat by the wall each evening and talked quietly about patience and about doing no harm, and the elephant lay in the dark and listened.
And he came back. He was gentle again by the end of it, and he stayed gentle for the rest of his life, and children were lifted onto his back at festivals exactly as before.
Moral of the story
You become what you spend your evenings listening to. Choose the company within your hearing, because it is teaching you whether you intend it to or not.
Questions and answers
- What was the elephant like at the start?
Famously gentle. He had never harmed anyone, knelt for people who could not climb, and could be led by a child.
- Who began meeting outside his stable?
A gang of thieves, who divided their stolen goods on the waste ground and discussed their work loudly at night.
- What did the elephant learn from them?
That striking first and showing no hesitation was how to succeed, because that is what the thieves repeated night after night.
- How did the minister work out the cause?
Finding the elephant physically healthy, he asked who had been near the stable and what the elephant could hear.
- How was the elephant cured?
The thieves were driven off and good men sat outside the stable each night talking about kindness and restraint within his hearing.
Word meanings
- state elephant
- An elephant kept by a king for ceremonies and processions.
- waste ground
- Empty land that is not used or built on.
- restraint
- Holding yourself back from acting badly.
- enquiries
- Questions asked in order to find something out.
Questions about The Elephant and the Bad Company
What is the moral of The Elephant and the Bad Company?
That the company you keep shapes you, even passively. The elephant chose none of it and was changed anyway.
Is the violence described?
No. The deaths are stated in a single sentence with no detail, and the story moves immediately to the diagnosis and the cure.
Why is this story still taught?
Because it is one of the oldest clear statements of the idea that environment shapes character, and because the cure is as interesting as the cause.
What is this tale called in the original?
It appears as the Dubbalakattha or Mahilamukha Jataka depending on the collection.