Hello my name is Amita and welcome back to the series of Panchatantra short stories.
So Panchatantra stories are the oldest surviving fables from ancient India.
These are spread all over the world for centuries especially as bedtime stories for kids.
So I am starting this Panchatantra series of 60 stories.
Hope you like it.
The mice and the elephants.
Once upon a time a deadly epidemic spread in a distant village.
The people of the village deserted it and went away to live in some other place.
A few mice made this village their home.
Soon the deserted village became their fort.
The mice lived there happily and peacefully.
Near the village there was a big forest.
In the forest there lived a big group of elephants.
The elephants were happy in the jungle until they did not face any acute scarcity of water in the forest.
The elephants who needed a lot of water to drink and bathe found it extremely difficult to survive.
One day one of the elephants informed their leader that there was a big lake near a village.
This village was the same village where the mice were living.
The troubled leader immediately instructed his followers to proceed towards the lake.
All the elephants rushed enthusiastically.
They crossed the village running.
While passing through the village they unknowingly trampled hundreds of mice under their feet.
After drinking water they returned through the same way again and again killed a number of mice along the way.
The worried and grieved mice ran to their king and requested him to do something since it was going to be a daily affair.
The king said,
I have heard that the leader of the elephants is a mice fellow.
If we go there and apprise him of our problem he will surely understand it.
So the king along with some other mice went to the leader of the elephants.
The leader was indeed an understanding fellow.
He said,
Dear friends,
I did not know that by passing through your village we were causing such a grave harm to you.
I promise that from now onwards we will change our way to reach the lake.
The mice were highly impressed by the friendly gesture of the elephant's leader.
The mouse king thanked the elephants and came back to his place.
Shortly after the incident one day when the elephants were passing through the jungle along with their leader a few of them fell prey to a poacher's trap.
The elephants knew that after some time the poacher would come and take them away.
All of a sudden the troubled leader remembered the mice who were living in the nearby village.
The leader asked one of his fellow elephants who was out of the trap to rush towards the village and inform the mice about the mishap.
The messenger elephant ran as fast as he could and reached the village.
There he gave his leader's message to the king of the mice.
The mice were grateful to the mighty elephants for their kind gesture.
So in no time hundreds of mice rushed to the rescue of their mighty friends.
After reaching there the mice started nibbling the ropes tied on the elephant's feet.
Much before the poachers could come to take the elephants away the elephants were freed.
The mighty elephants thanked their small friends for their great help.
Their unique friendship lasted a long time.
Thank you!
