The Panchatantra - Story 73

STORY NO. 73. HEADLESS STRAGGLER COMES TO GRIEF

There was in a certain land a poor charioteer called Ujjwalaka, Nobody would engage his chariot and he found that job no good. He said to himself : "What is the use of sticking to a job which does not pay, or remaining in a country which does not provide enough to maintain yourself ? The whole world is our motherland, and all occupations can be resorted to, to eke out one's living. "So saying, he left his place for another country. On the way, in a forest, he found a baby she-camel abandoned by its mother which had delivered it and gone its way. He took it and returned home and he and his wife fed it on

grass brought from the forest and it grew up into a hefty camel and delivered several little camels, and be could hire out those camels and eke out a living. 

From time to time, he used to make expeditions to the desert of Rajasthan and Gujarat and buy small camels to add to his herd. One such small camel which he brought with him was a lovely one and he put some silver bells round its neck which created a delightful tinkling sound. That camel was very proud of this. The other camels went without such bells and were none too' pleased at the preference shown to this new camel. One day, when the herd was out grazing in a forest, the new camel strayed behind, gamboling and leaping and enjoying itself. An elder camel said to it: "Don't straggle behind, as there is a danger from the lion and other animals, and the

tinkling bells round your neck will easily reveal your presence to such wild beasts."The young camel paid no heed to this advice, but continued to straggle behind the herd which soon passed out of sight. Darkness came, and the young camel did not know the way back home and could not also catch sight of the herd. In its frantic attempt to find out the herd and join it, it ran hither and thither with the bells round its neck tinkling. A lion heard the sound of the bells and rushed to the spot, fell on it, and killed it.