The Crane and the Mongoose
Also known as Bagula aur Nevla
- 2 minute read
- Ages 7-11
- Panchatantra Stories
A colony of cranes nested in a fig tree, and a black snake lived in a hollow at the base of it and ate the chicks every year.
The cranes could do nothing about it, and they had been doing nothing about it for a long time.
The crab's advice
One of them sat by the lake one evening telling the whole story to a crab.
The crab listened all the way through.
Then he said: "Catch fish from the pond where the mongooses live. Lay them in a line, one at a time, from the mongoose burrows to the snake's hollow at the foot of your tree. A mongoose will follow the fish. When it gets to the end of the line it will find the snake, and a mongoose will always kill a snake."
The crane thought this was the best advice he had ever received.
He did not stop to ask the obvious question, which the crab had deliberately not raised, because the crab had his own reasons and cranes eat crabs.
The line of fish
The cranes did it exactly as described.
They caught the fish and laid the trail and waited, and a mongoose came out and followed it, one fish at a time, all the way across the field and up to the hollow at the foot of the fig tree.
It found the snake. It killed the snake.
The cranes watched from the branches, delighted.
Afterwards
Then the mongoose finished the last fish and looked up.
There was a tree full of birds directly above it, and it had just been shown a very convenient route from its own home to this exact spot.
It came back the next day. And the day after.
A mongoose climbs perfectly well.
Within a season there were no cranes in that tree at all, and there was no snake either, and the crab in the lake went on with his life undisturbed.
Moral of the story
Ask what happens after the plan works. The cranes solved the problem in front of them and invited a worse one to walk right up to the tree.
Questions and answers
- What was the cranes' problem?
A black snake living at the base of their tree ate their chicks every year.
- What did the crab advise?
To lay a trail of fish from the mongoose burrows to the snake's hollow, so a mongoose would follow it and kill the snake.
- Did the plan work?
Yes. The mongoose followed the trail and killed the snake exactly as predicted.
- What went wrong afterwards?
The mongoose found a tree full of birds above it and a convenient route back, and returned every day until no cranes were left.
- Why did the crab give this advice?
The story implies he had his own reasons. Cranes eat crabs, and the crab was solving his problem while appearing to solve theirs.
Word meanings
- colony
- A group of birds or animals living together.
- hollow
- An empty space inside something.
- burrow
- A hole in the ground where an animal lives.
- trail
- A line or track leading somewhere.
Questions about The Crane and the Mongoose
What is the moral of The Crane and the Mongoose?
That a solution can be worse than the problem. The cranes never asked what the mongoose would do once the snake was dead.
Is the crab deliberately tricking the cranes?
The Panchatantra leaves it open, which is what makes the story sharp. The advice was accurate and the outcome was a disaster, and the crab benefited either way.
What question should the cranes have asked?
What the mongoose would do next. The story is often used to introduce the idea of thinking one step past the immediate fix.
Which book of the Panchatantra is this from?
It appears in the third book, Kakolukiyam, which deals with enemies and with plans that go wrong.