The Brahmin, the Thief and the Demon

A good Brahmin was once given two fine cattle as a gift for his prayers. He was very happy to have them.

But a thief happened to see the cattle, and he began to plot how he could steal them.

At the very same time, a rakshasa, a hungry demon of the night, had his eye on the Brahmin himself. He was longing to eat him up.

That night, the thief set off for the Brahmin’s house to steal the cattle. And the demon set off for the Brahmin’s house to gobble up the Brahmin. On the way, the two of them bumped into each other in the dark.

“Where are you going?” they asked each other. Each told the other what he meant to do. “Well then,” they said, “let’s go together.”

So the thief and the demon crept into the Brahmin’s house side by side. But once they were inside, they began to quarrel.

“I’m taking the cattle first,” whispered the thief. “If you grab the Brahmin first, he’ll wake up, and then how will I get the cattle?”

“Certainly not!” hissed the demon. “I’m taking the Brahmin first. If you go clattering off with the cattle, the noise of their hooves will wake him up, and all my trouble will be for nothing.”

“Me first!”

“No, me!”

They argued louder and louder, until the Brahmin woke up.

He jumped out of bed and seized his sword. Then he began to chant a holy charm, a prayer that drives away demons. The thief and the demon took one look at him and ran away as fast as they could, and the Brahmin kept both his cattle and his life.

About this telling

This short fable is retold from the Kathá Sarit Ságara, Somadeva’s huge eleventh-century gathering of Sanskrit tales, in C. H. Tawney’s English (Project Gutenberg #40588). In Somadeva’s book an owl minister tells it to his king during the war between the crows and the owls. He argues that a quarrel between two enemies, like the thief and the demon, can only help the one they both meant to harm.

A rakshasa is a fierce demon in Indian stories, said to roam at night and to eat people. Tawney’s note links this fable to the Arabic Kalilah and Dimnah and the Persian Anvár-i-Suhaili.

Read the original: Somadeva’s Ocean of Story (Kathá Sarit Ságara), C. H. Tawney’s translation (Project Gutenberg #40588)

Best for ages 6–8 — a funny fable about how quarrelling can spoil even the wickedest plan.

A closer reading

The thief and demon share a destination, but their plans depend on incompatible orders of action. Each correctly sees that the other’s noise might wake the Brahmin. Neither applies the same insight to their own increasingly loud argument. The joke is that their attempt to control a risk creates that very risk.

The Brahmin benefits from their quarrel, but he also responds when he wakes: the sword threatens the thief and the prayer threatens the demon within the story’s magical world. The ending therefore combines the enemies’ failure with the intended victim’s quick action. It does not promise that every disagreement between dangerous people will keep others safe.

Try this with the story

Retell the meeting twice, once from each intruder’s viewpoint. In each version, explain why going second seems risky. Circle the moment when their shared need for silence is lost.

Think about it

• Why does each intruder insist on going first?
• What danger do both understand but then create themselves?
• How does the Brahmin respond differently to the two threats?

Related stories

• Of Crows and Owls — the crows-and-owls war in which this fable is told
• The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal (Alternate Retelling) — another tale of a Brahmin in danger
• The Brahmarakshas And The Hair — another Indian story about a demon