Dead Week Story: A Wolf in Rat's Clothing

Rat (Google)

There was once a colony of rats ruled by a graceful and wise king. Every day they would go out into the wilderness and hunt for food, and every night they would go back to their home and share what they had with the rest of the colony. However, a wolf caught notice of these rats and became intrigued.

This wolf loved to eat rats. Rats were his favorite food and he would do anything to get his paws on a delicious rat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. So he approached the rats' home, pretending to have a limp.

"What are you doing here, Wolf? We don't want any trouble, we just want to live in peace." said the king.

"Oh no no no, I don't want to eat you, mighty rat. No I have a limp and cannot walk, would it be an inconvenience if I rested during the day outside of your domain?" said the wolf.

The king rat agreed, and the wolf's plan was in effect.

For weeks, every day the wolf would wait for the rats to go about their daily business and pick the last rat in line to eat.

One by one, the rats dissapeared and no one knew what was happening.

The king slowly became suspicious. He decided to be the last one in line one day and wanted to catch the wolf in the act of trying to eat a rat.

As he planned, once he was the last one to leave, the wolf lunged at the king rat with his bite. However, the king was fast and dove out of the way, and into the wolf's neck, biting him.

The wolf was dead and the rats were no longer in danger.

The End

More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt


Author's Note: This story was a brief telling of the Clever Wolf story from More Jataka Tales