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Panchatantra Book 1 - 027 - Who is Better: A Wise Enemy or a Foolish Loyal Servant

Table of Contents

Recap

Cheated by a "friend" who claimed rats had devoured his iron scale, Jirnadhana played along calmly, only to strike back by claiming an eagle had carried off the merchant's son. Dragged before the judge, both absurd excuses were weighed side by side, and the court ruled that if rats could eat iron, eagles could certainly fly off with boys — forcing the merchant to return the scale to get his son back. Karataka closed this tale with a warning to Damanaka: dishonest schemes, however clever, eventually turn back upon their creator. He then started a fresh story — of a king undone by a monkey, and a thief who, of all people, ended up saving a group of scholars.

The King and the Foolish Monkey

A king had a pet monkey. The monkey had been with the king for years and the king felt the pet was extremely trustworthy. The monkey had full access to the palace and could go anywhere anytime. The monkey also loved the king and was always looking for ways to serve him.

One afternoon the king was having a nap. The monkey was sitting near the king, fanning him. It was afternoon and the windows were open. A housefly came into the room. It buzzed around and then landed on the king’s chest. The monkey tried to shoo away the fly. It went off and a second later, it came and landed back on the king’s chest. The monkey tried again and this kept happening. The fly would rise, fly around the room and then come and land, back on the king’s chest.

Irritated the monkey decided to deal with the fly. The next time the fly landed on the king’s chest, the irritated monkey picked up a sword. He would deal with fly now. He raised the sword and brought it down with force. The fly escaped but the sword hit the king, killing him.

Ending this story, Karataka said. ‘A king who wants to rule, should never employ foolish people. I had spoken about a thief. Let me tell you about that.’

The Brahmins and the Thief

In a town lived a scholar. He was learned but he wanted to earn money fast. Some say it was because of his karma from his previous births; he became a thief. He was always on the lookout for his next victim, whom he could rob. One day he saw four brahmin scholars. They were trying to sell some goods. He approached them and figured out their mentality. He then began quoting from scriptures and started talking philosophy. He then told them he knew they were from outside and offered to be their guide. He saw the brahmins sell their goods and buy jewels with the money they got. They took the jewels and divided that amongst the four of them, equally. Each brahmin then took their share of the jewels and tied that to their inner thighs. They then decided to return home. Seeing this, the thief was sad. He had not able to get his hands on the jewels. He decided to follow the brahmins and somewhere on the way, he would rob them. The question was – if he followed them, they would suspect him. So, he said to them, ‘I spent some lovely time in your company. I will miss you very much. Take me along with you as your servant.’

The brahmins agreed and the thief went along with them. Their way took them through a forest. In this forest were a bunch of crows The crows had seen the brahmins take the jewels and tie them to their thighs. As soon as the brahmins and the thief passed that way, the crows stared shouting, ‘There are people here. They carry jewels with them. Kill them and take the jewels. All of them have jewels on them.’ These crows served robbers and they were passing on the message so the robbers could come and loot the group.

The robbers came and caught hold of the group. They searched them but could not see anything. The jewels were hidden in the crotch of the brahmins. Seeing that they had not found anything, the robbers asked the men to hand over what they had, else they would kill them – their crows were never wrong.

The thief thought, ‘Once the robbers have taken the jewels from the brahmins after killing them, they will kill me thinking I too have jewels. If I step forward and give up my life, maybe the brahmins can escape. Death will come one day. For sacrificing myself for others, I will be honoured and will reach heaven.’

He then shouted, ‘Your crows have grown old. If you feel we have jewels, then search me first. Kill me and search inside my body. Let all see what you find.’

The robbers did that and not finding anything, they cursed the crows and let the brahmins leave.

Ending his story, Karataka said, ‘This is why I was telling you, a wise enemy is much better than a foolish servant.’

All the while when Karataka and Damanaka were talking, Pingalaka and Sanjeevaka were fighting. Though badly injured, Pingalaka managed to kill Sanjeevaka. Seeing this, Pingala cried out and said, ‘I betrayed the trust of someone today. I shall be remembered as one who gave his word and could not keep it. I have lost a well-wisher and a good advisor.’

Seeing this, Damanaka went to Pingalaka and said, ‘Sir, you killed an herbivore and you should not be crying over that. He was a traitor and you did the correct thing. A king should not be soft-hearted.’

Leaving aside his grief, Pingalaka went back to his kingdom to rule as the king, with Damanaka as his chief-minister.

This is where Book One of Panchatantra ends.

Analysis

Before I get on with the next post, a look inside this post.

The Niti principle is clearly stated by Karataka: "A wise enemy is better than a foolish friend".

  • The monkey is loyal but he is not clever and does not know about the impact of his actions. He is a fool who has a dangerous instrument and no knowledge of how to use that.
  • The thief is technically an "enemy" (a robber preying on the brahmins) but his intelligence ends up saving lives.
  • Trusting Damanaka led to the loss of a genuinely good person.

Characters

Character Action & Motive Human Tendency Represented Modern Equivalent
The Monkey Wants to kill the fly, ends up killing the king loyalty without competence The overzealous employee who "helps" without understanding consequences
The King Trusted the monkey Trust based on affection, not ability A boss who promotes based on loyalty, not skill
The Thief Infiltrates brahmins' trust, plans robbery, but sacrifices himself to save them when caught An opportunist who still acts nobly under pressure A con artist or corporate insider who ultimately does the right thing when stakes turn real

Competencies

  • Human Resource Risk Management: Misaligning skill sets with responsibility is fatal. Demonstrating loyalty does not grant operational capability.
  • Risk Mitigation & Crisis Management: The thief demonstrates split-second tactical thinking by using himself as a sacrificial control element to invalidate the robbers' intelligence source (the crows).

This is the end of the Book 1 of Panchatantra.

The next post will still be on Book 1 and a bit more. I plan to share:

  • a summary of what was there in book 1
  • upcoming tales in book 2, and
  • more Book 1 tales.
    • This may sound weird but there are many versions of Panchatantra which have additional tales. I will try and get those and share the same here.

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