The Story of the Foolish Leopard

In a certain country, at the season when a Gamarāla and his son are causing cattle to graze, having constructed a fold in a good manner the Gamarāla encloses the cattle in the fold.

When he was there, a big Leopard which was near having heard this speech that he is making, thinks, “The Leopard indeed is I; what is the Boṭiyā?” In fear, with various ideas [about it], he got inside the fold; but having thought that the Boṭiyā will come now, he went into the midst of the calves, and in the middle of them, his happiness being ended, he remained.

In the meantime, a thief having got inside the fold, came lifting and lifting up the calves [to ascertain which was the heaviest]. Having come near the Leopard, when he lifted it up he placed the Leopard on his shoulder [in order to carry it away], because it was very heavy. The Leopard thinks, “This one, indeed, is the Boṭiyā.” Having thought, “Should I [try to] escape he will kill me,” it was motionless. And the thief because he went quickly in the night [with it], for that reason thought that the calf was very good. At the time when he turned and looked at it he perceived that it was a Leopard, and he considered in what manner he could escape.

Having seen a hill near there, near an abandoned pansala (the residence of a Buddhist monk), the man threw it down from the hill, and got inside the pansala. When he shut the door, anger having come to the Leopard by reason of the harm done to him [owing to his fall], at the time when he was near the door [trying to enter in order to kill the man], a Jackal asked the Leopard, “Why is this?”

When he told the Jackal the reason, the Jackal thought he would like to eat the Leopard’s flesh, [and therefore said], “I will tell you, Sir, a stratagem for opening the door. Should you put that tail of yours, Sir, through that hole the door will open.”

At the time when he said [this], the Leopard having thought that by this skilful act the door will open, put his tail through. Thereupon the thief twisted the tail round the post that was near the door.

At the time when he was holding it, the Jackal went to the rice field near there in which men were working. While the Jackal was crying and crying out to the men, “Please come near, please come near,” they went near the pansala. Having seen the Leopard, and beaten and killed the Leopard, they took away the skin, it is said.

Then the Jackal with much delight ate the Leopard’s flesh, it is said.

North-western Province.

This story is a variant of No. 70 in vol. i.

In The Orientalist, vol. iv, p. 30, Mr. W. Goonetilleke gave a nearly similar story. The fold was one in which goats and sheep were enclosed. The man carried off the leopard which was concealed among them, and on discovering his mistake threw it down into a stream as he was crossing an ēdaṇḍa, or foot-bridge made of a tree trunk. He then ran off and got hid in a corn-store, where the jackal told him to twist the tail round a post, as related in vol. i, p. 368.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. xiv, p. 77 (Tales of the Sun, p. 93), in a Tamil story given by Naṭēśa Sāstrī, a shepherd, when he left his flock temporarily, fixed his stick at the place with his rug over it, and told it to keep watch, or some thief or bhūta or kūta might try to steal one. A bhūta, or evil spirit, which had come for this purpose, overheard this, and being afraid of the unknown animal called a kūta, lay down amid the flock. Two men who came to steal a goat selected the bhūta, and carried it off as being the fattest. Thinking these were the kūtas, the bhūta tried to escape, and eventually melted away. The later incidents do not resemble those of this Sinhalese story.