Short Stories » The Price of Indiscretion

The Price of Indiscretion - Panchatantra Stories for Kids

A Long time ago, there was a cart-maker who was very poor. He used to get very few orders for making carts. This situation led to his family living a poor life. One day the Cart-maker got fed-up of his prevailing condition. He thought, “This cart-making work is of no use. Perhaps I should focus on some other job.” He promised himself that, he will give a better life to his family. He will not spend the rest of his life in this beggarly condition. His wife and family also agreed and supported him in this decision.

After taking this tough decision, he took his family, left the village and migrated to another place. In the middle of the jungle, he saw a female camel in pain.

He observed that her owner had left her alone in the jungle. The camel was having labor pain. After the female camel recovered, he served food and grass to the camel. She gave birth to a baby camel. Now, the cart-maker took both camel and baby camel under his guardianship. He took them to his new home.

With the passage of time, the camels settled with the cart maker. They all were living happily with each other. The baby camel grew taller and cart-maker lovingly tied a bell around young camel’s neck.

He started a new business of selling camel’s milk to villagers. He noticed milk selling is a smart business to earn a better livelihood. He realized, now he doesn’t require any other business to increase his wealth. These camels proved very lucky and profitable for him and as well as for his family.

On a fine day, he said to his wife, this milk selling job is easy. It is a profitable business to support our family. I have decided to buy some other camels. Therefore, I am going to the city, to borrow some money from a wealthy merchant. I am going to buy some more young camels to expand our business.

The other day, he traveled to the city and purchased some camels. After a few days, he came back with some young camels. Now he became very rich and wealthy. He even hired some men to take care of camels and to sell camel’s milk. Now he had many young camels, but his favorite baby camel was only one, the baby camel with a bell around his neck.

Every day, the camels went into the jungle to graze the jungle’s tender and fresh grass. They would enjoy the fresh air, play in the nearby river, take bath and drink water. All those camels come back home before sunset. During all of this, the baby camel who wore a bell around the neck trailed behind in the group. The other camels would always scold him, warn & advise him to not stay behind the group. Otherwise, only he will be responsible for its dire consequences. But all of their efforts were in vain, he wouldn’t listen to anybody. He always felt proud and behaved arrogantly, because of being master’s favorite.

One day, all camels were grazing in the jungle. As usual, the master’s favorite camel stayed behind the other camels. A lion was wandering in the jungle in search of food. He heard the bell’s sound and followed in the direction from where the sound was coming. When he saw the baby camel was grazing grass alone, he immediately jumped and killed him on the spot. His arrogant behavior led to his death.

MORAL: Don’t try to act smart always.