The Elephant and the Dog

Once upon a time a dog used to visit the stable where the king’s elephant lived. At first he came only for the scraps. When the elephant had finished eating, the dog would gobble up the bits that were left.

Day after day the dog came back, waiting for crumbs. But little by little, the elephant and the dog became best friends. Soon the elephant was sharing his dinner, and the two of them ate side by side. When the elephant lay down to sleep, the dog curled up next to him. When the elephant wanted to play, he wrapped his trunk around the dog and swung him gently back and forth. Neither of them was really happy unless the other one was close by.

One day a farmer noticed the dog. “I would like to buy that dog,” he told the elephant-keeper. “He looks friendly, and I can see he is clever. How much do you want for him?”

The keeper did not care about the dog, and he needed money just then. So he named a price. The farmer paid it and took the dog away to his home in the country.

The king’s elephant missed his friend terribly. Without the dog there to share it, he did not want his food. When bath time came, he would not go into the water. The next day he would not eat or bathe. On the third day he still would not eat or bathe, and so someone went to tell the king.

The king called his chief servant. “Go to the stable,” he said, “and find out what is wrong with my elephant.”

The chief servant looked the elephant over from trunk to tail. Then he turned to the keeper. “His body seems perfectly well,” he said. “So why does he look so unhappy? Has he lost a playmate?”

“Yes,” said the keeper. “There was a dog who ate with him and slept with him and played with him. Three days ago the dog went away.”

“Where is the dog now?”

“I don’t know,” said the keeper.

So the chief servant went back to the king. “Your elephant is not sick,” he said. “He is lonely. He misses his friend, the dog.”

“And where is this dog?” asked the king.

“The keeper says a farmer took him, but nobody knows where the farmer lives.”

“Very well,” said the king. “I will send a message all over the land. Whoever bought this dog must set him free, and I will pay him back every coin he spent.”

When the farmer heard the king’s message, he let the dog go. The dog ran all the way back to the stable as fast as his legs could carry him. The elephant was so happy that he lifted his friend up with his trunk and set him on top of his head. Then he put him gently down.

When the keeper brought the food, the elephant watched the dog eat first, and only then did he begin his own dinner.

And for the rest of their lives, the elephant and the dog lived together.

About this telling

Ellen C. Babbitt retold this story in More Jataka Tales (Project Gutenberg #7518), a companion to her earlier Jataka Tales, with pictures by Ellsworth Young and a dedication to Rudyard Kipling. In her foreword she explains that she drew her stories from the full English Jataka brought out by a guild of Cambridge translators under Professor E. B. Cowell.

The Jataka is the old Buddhist collection of stories about the Buddha’s earlier lives. This one is often called the Abhinha Jataka. The source used here is Babbitt’s Jataka retelling; this page does not establish a Panchatantra source.

Read the original: Ellen C. Babbitt, More Jataka Tales (Project Gutenberg #7518)

Best for ages 3–5 — a gentle story about friendship and missing someone you love.

A closer reading

The friendship grows through repeated ordinary actions: eating, resting and playing together. The sale interrupts all three routines. That is why the elephant’s response is more than simply missing an entertaining visitor; his daily companion has disappeared without his choice.

The chief servant asks about a relationship after observing the elephant. In this story, that question reveals what the keeper overlooked. The king then repairs the separation while offering to repay the farmer, rather than making the purchaser alone bear the cost. The elephant’s final act—waiting for the dog to eat—shows the bond through care instead of merely announcing that they are happy.

Try this with the story

Draw three small pictures of the friends’ shared routines before the sale and a fourth of their reunion meal. Ask what the keeper noticed about the dog and what he missed about the friendship. Let a young listener choose one detail that shows care without using the word ‘friend’.

Questions to ask

• Which daily things do the elephant and dog do together?
• What does the chief servant ask that the keeper had overlooked?
• Why does the king offer to repay the farmer?
• How does the elephant show care at the final meal?

You may also like

• The King’s White Elephant — another story of a king and his elephant
• The Banyan Deer (Nigrodhamiga Jataka) — another Jataka tale about kindness to animals