On the top of a mountain, there was a huge tree. In the tree lived a certain bird, by the name of Sindhuka, whose droppings always turned to gold.
One day, a hunter came to the spot to catch birds. While he was watching, this bird discharged its droppings and immediately it turned into a piece of gold. The hunter was wonder-struck and he thought to himself, “I have been catching birds since I was a small child, but never have I seen the droppings of a bird turn to gold!”
So the hunter set a trap in the tree. The foolish bird did not notice either the hunter or the trap and was caught. The hunter took him out of the trap and put him in a cage.
Then he thought to himself, “Now, before anyone finds out about this strange bird and reports it to the king, I had better go to him myself and show the bird.”
And so, he took the bird to the king and told him everything. The king was delighted and said to his attendants, “Look after this bird carefully. Give him food and water to his heart’s content.”
But the king’s ministers said to him, “Your Majesty! How can you trust the words of a mere hunter? Could it ever be possible to get gold from a bird’s droppings? We advise you to take him out of the cage and release him.” The king listened to his ministers’ advice and set the bird free. Immediately, he perched himself on top of a nearby gate and let fall his droppings which immediately turned to gold. And he said, “First I was foolish, then the hunter, Then the ministers and then the king, We are all a pack of fools.”
“In the same way,” continued Raktaksha, “we are all fools for sparing this crow. We must kill him!” But still the owls turned a deaf ear to Raktaksha’s advice and continued to lavish attention on the crow.
Then Raktaksha called his followers together and said to them in confidence, “Until now, we have been safe here, but I have a foreboding of an approaching disaster. I have done my best to convince Arimaradana of my point of view, but in vain. So we must leave this place and go where we shall be safe. As the jackal said, ‘He who anticipates the coming of a disaster, And acts, accordingly, is spared, But he who fails to anticipate it, Comes to grief: I have grown old living in this jungle, But I have never yet heard a cave talking!'”
“How was that?” asked his friends.
And Raktaksha told: THE STORY OF THE LION, THE JACKAL AND THE CAVE
