19. Hitopadesh - The Hermit And The Mouse

Once upon a time, in a far off village there lived a saint. He lived by begging for food from door to door.

Everyday the saint used to save some food and keep it a bowl. The bowl was hanged up on a peg to keep it out of reach of mouse.

One day a mouse saw this. After the saint slept, he jumped up and stole the food. 

Next day the saint found the food missing and came to know the mouse ate it. The mouse continued to steal the food for several days. But the saint could not find a way to get rid of it.

One afternoon, a friend came to the saint's house. The saint welcomed him and offered him food and water.

They sat together to have close talk. While they were talking, the saint kept tapping a bamboo on ground to scare away the mouse.

Seeing this, the visitor was surprised and asked, “What are doing with this bamboo my friend?

You do not seem to be interested in my talk. I should leave”.

The saint suddenly stopped tapping the bamboo and said, “Forgive me! I am trapping bamboo to keep away the mouse which steals my food”.

The visitor saw the peg where the saint hanged the food bowl and asked, “How can mouse jump so high and take away the food?” He told the saint that the mouse accumulates a lot of food for eating and so has great muscle energy to jump so high.

Thus they starting searching the food stored by the mouse. Soon they found the stored food they threw it.

When the mouse returned to his hole, he found the food missing. From then on the mouse never had enough food to eat. It became weak and could not jump to steal food from the peg.

Moral: You can defeat your enemy by weakening them.