The hunter who made a blunder (adapted from a Tamil story): Indies

Once there lived an elephant named Bala in a jungle. One day, when the elephant was searching for food, a hunter spotted Bala and used his bow to shoot him. Luckily, the elephant was not hurt that badly. But as Bala was scared that the hunter would hurt him even more, he came up with a plan.

He then said to the hunter, " Hunter! Please do not hurt me further! I beg you! If I can fit inside a ceramic pot by sunset, then you cannot hurt me any more. But if I fail to do so, then you can do whatever you want to do to me.

Hearing this, the hunter agreed, extremely confident that Bala would fail. After Bala had told the hunter to sit on a log to wait for him, he slowly pulled out the arrow on him slowly using his powerful trunk and gave a small cry of pain. Bala's eyes then darted around to look for his friend the rabbit named Violet in the jungle. Finally he saw a glimpse of a furry, white tail amongst the raspberry bushes. "Violet!" he called." Come out of the bushes."

A few moments later, Violet came out from the bushes with a red raspberry juice stained mouth and greeted Bala cheerfully. When she saw Bala's wound, her eyes widened in shock. She asked in concern, " What happened?" The elephant then briefly summarised what had happened between him and the hunter. After that, he explained the plan that he had devised.

Violet agreed with a smile. She would do anything to save her friend. Then, the two scurried off to find the hunter. On the way, they found an extremely weak and old ceramic pot. So as to follow Bala's plan, Violet nibbled a big hole on either side of the pot. Then, Bala stood five metres away from the pot in a straight line facing the pot. Next, without wasting a second, the rabbit hopped towards the hunter who was waiting for them and told him to follow her to see Bala inside the pot. The hunter followed Violet and stopped behind her when they reached the pot.

Then, Violet told the hunter to look at the pot from where she was standing a good two metres away from the pot. When the hunter saw the pot, his jaws dropped. The rabbit then pretended to boast about how easy it was to place the elephant inside the pot. Defeated, the hunter turned away and went out of the jungle. Bala and Violet cheered. They had tricked the hunter for Bala to survive! Yes!

Violet

Bala

The Hunter

- The End -