The Ox That Envied the Pig
Also known as Munika Jataka
- 3 minute read
- Ages 6-10
- Jataka Tales
Two oxen, Big Red and Little Red, worked on a farm.
They pulled the plough and the cart, and they were fed on grass and straw, and at the end of a day's work they were tired.
In the same yard there was a pig called Munika.
Munika did no work at all. He lived in a pen and was fed rice porridge twice a day, and he had a heap of clean straw to lie in, and he was getting fatter every week.
The complaint
Little Red watched this for months and eventually said something.
"Look at us," he said. "We pull that plough from sunrise. Look at what we get. Grass. And look at him: he has never done a day's work and he eats better than the farmer."
His brother went on chewing.
"Do you not think that is unfair?"
"I do not think about it much," said Big Red.
"That is the trouble with you," said Little Red.
The wedding
Some weeks later the farmer's daughter was to be married, and the household got busy, and there was cooking from before dawn.
Little Red noticed that Munika was being fed even better than usual and said so, bitterly.
Big Red put his head up and looked across the yard at the pig for a while.
"Do not envy him," he said.
"Why not?"
"Because we are going to pull the carts to the wedding and come home again," said Big Red. "And there is a reason he has been fed rice porridge for a year and we have been fed grass. Grass is what you give an animal you are keeping."
Little Red stopped chewing.
"Oh," he said.
After the wedding
The two oxen pulled the carts to the wedding and back and were unharnessed in the yard in the evening, and were given grass, and were extremely glad of it.
The pen across the yard was empty.
And Little Red never mentioned the porridge again, and the story says he was a good deal more cheerful about grass for the rest of his life.
Moral of the story
Little Red spent months envying a better meal without once asking why anyone would give it. The answer was in the food the whole time.
Questions and answers
- What work did the two oxen do?
They pulled the plough and the cart from sunrise and were fed on grass and straw.
- What did the pig Munika do?
No work at all. He lived in a pen and was fed rice porridge twice a day.
- Why did Little Red complain?
He thought it was unfair that a pig who did nothing ate far better than oxen who worked all day.
- What did Big Red point out?
That grass is what you feed an animal you intend to keep, and that the porridge had a different purpose.
- What happened after the wedding?
The oxen came home and were fed grass. The pig's pen was empty.
Word meanings
- plough
- A tool pulled by animals to turn over soil.
- porridge
- A soft food made by boiling grain in water or milk.
- pen
- A small fenced area for keeping animals.
- unharnessed
- Freed from the straps attaching them to a cart.
Questions about The Ox That Envied the Pig
What is the moral of The Ox That Envied the Pig?
That you rarely know the full terms of someone else's situation. Little Red envied the food without asking what it was for.
Is the ending too dark for children?
It is handled in one line: the pen is empty. Nothing is described, and Indian schoolbooks commonly carry this tale for ages six and above.
Why does Big Red not explain earlier?
The story does not say, though the implication is that he had worked it out long before and saw no reason to make his brother miserable about it.
What is this tale called in the original?
The Munika Jataka, named after the pig.