The Clever Rabbit and the Lion

Also known as Chatur Khargosh aur Sher

• 4 minute read
• Ages 6-10
• Panchatantra Stories

In a thick forest there lived a lion named Bhasuraka. He was enormous, and he was cruel. He did not hunt because he was hungry. He hunted because he liked to.

Every morning he walked out and killed whatever he found, whether he meant to eat it or not. Deer, rabbits, monkeys, birds. The forest floor was littered with animals he had killed and left behind.

The animals make a bargain

At last the animals gathered together in secret, because they could not go on this way. Soon there would be nobody left.

They went to the lion and bowed low.

"Great king," said the oldest deer, "if you keep hunting like this, in a year there will be no animals in this forest at all, and then you will starve too. Let us make a bargain. Every single day, one of us will come to you on our own. You will not have to hunt at all. But you must kill only that one, and no more."

Bhasuraka thought about it. It suited him very well.

"Agreed," he said. "But if even one day passes without my meal, I will kill every one of you."

The rabbit's turn

So it began. Each day the animals drew lots, and whoever was chosen walked slowly to the lion's cave, and did not come back.

Then one morning the lot fell to a small rabbit.

The rabbit was very frightened. But as he walked, he began to think, and the more he thought, the slower he walked. He stopped to look at a flower. He sat down beside a stream. He let the sun climb high in the sky.

By the time he came near the lion's cave it was long past noon, and Bhasuraka was roaring with hunger and rage.

"You are late!" the lion thundered. "And you are tiny! Where is my meal?"

The rabbit trembled, and bowed, and spoke.

"Forgive me, my lord. Five of us set out this morning. But on the way we were stopped by another lion, a lion who says he is the true king of this forest. He ate the other four. I begged him to let me come and tell you, and only then did he let me go."

Show me this lion

Bhasuraka was so angry he could hardly speak.

"Another lion? In my forest? Take me to him at once."

"This way, my lord," said the rabbit.

He led the lion through the trees, past the rocks, and up to an old stone well, very deep and very still.

"He lives down there," whispered the rabbit. "He is hiding from you."

Bhasuraka strode to the edge of the well and looked down.

And a lion looked back up at him out of the dark water. A big lion. An angry lion. Staring straight at him.

Bhasuraka roared. The lion in the well roared back at exactly the same moment.

That was too much. Bhasuraka gathered himself and sprang down at his enemy.

There was a great splash, and then nothing.

The rabbit waited a while, listening. Then he went back and told the forest that they could stop drawing lots.