Panchatantra Stories in English

The Foolish Guard

Long ago, there was a king who had a monkey named jaggu as his pet. The king loved jaggu so much and gave him all the freedom and things he wanted. He treated jaggu just as he treated his other human friends. Jaggu always stayed with the king and went along with the king wherever he travelled.

One day the king was taking a walk in the royal garden. As usual, jaggu also accompanied the king. Suddenly jaggu started jumping here and there.

The king was annoyed seeing jaggu jumping and asked him why he was behaving weirdly. Jaggu pointed to a place where there was a snake. The king was scared on seeing the snake but Jaggu jumped upon the snake and killed it. The king was extremely happy as jaggu saved him from the snake. He thanked jaggu and gave him the food he liked.

The next day, the king narrated the whole story of how he was saved from a snake by his friend Jaggu. The king also told the royal court that from then onwards, Jaggu will be his chief guard. The ministers tried to convince the king that a monkey cannot think and act like a man and requested him to take back his decision. But the king did not take his decision back. He was in a belief that jaggu who saved him once, will save him even in the future. From then the king took more care of jaggu and also started teaching him new things.

One night, the king was exhausted and wanted to sleep. He asked jaggu to guard him while he was sleeping. Jaggu shook his head and stood beside the king while he was sleeping. A while after, a fly came from nowhere and sat on the king’s hand. Jaggu shouted ‘Shoo-Shoo’ and the fly went away. But again, after some time, the fly came back and sat on the king’s neck. Jaggu again shouted ‘Shoo-Shoo’ but the fly did not move. He then became furious as the fly came back again. He took the king's sword and tried to hit the fly which sat on the king’s neck. Unfortunately, the fly escaped from the sword blow but the king did not. The poor king was killed by his foolish guard. 

The Cunning Cat

Near a river, there lived a grey partridge in a huge tree hole. He lived happily feeding on the fishes in the river. But once, the whole river dried up during a hot summer and the partridge was left without any food. He began to starve and thought of leaving that place. He flew away and did not return for many days. After a few months, it rained and the river was back to its normal stage. A little rabbit who was searching for a new place to live saw the tree and loved that place. He started living in the hole of that tree thereafter.

After a few days, the partridge returned to his old place and saw the little rabbit living in his house. The partridge became furious and told that he lived there earlier and asked the little rabbit to leave his home. But the little rabbit said that he was staying there for a long time and did not want to leave that place. They began to argue with each other. They decided to go to someone and ask them who should live there.

A cunning cat was watching them from afar without their knowledge, and understood the situation. He disguised him as a sage, went near them, and asked what was their problem. Both partridge and the little hare believed that the cat was good and told him their problem. The cunning cat pretended to be a little deaf told them that he was not able to hear them properly. So, he asked them to come near him and tell him their problem again. The innocent partridge and little rabbit were scared at first but as they believed the cat was deaf, they moved a bit closer to the cat. In a moment, the cat pounced upon both, killed, and ate them.