The Story of the Bug and the Flea

In the bed of a certain king there lived a tiny bug. Her name was Mandavisarpiní, which means “the slow creeper.” Nobody knew where she had come from, and for a long, long time nobody ever found her.

Then one day the wind blew a flea into the king’s bed from somewhere outside. His name was Tittibha.

Mandavisarpiní was not pleased to see him. “Why have you come into my home?” she said. “Go and live somewhere else.”

“Please let me stay,” said the flea. “I want to taste the blood of a king. I have never had such a treat in my life.”

The bug wanted to be kind. “Very well,” she said. “If that is what you want, you may stay. But listen, my friend. You must never bite the king at the wrong time. Wait until he is fast asleep, and then bite him very gently.”

Tittibha agreed, and he stayed.

But that night, as soon as the king got into bed, the flea bit him hard.

The king jumped up. “Ow! Something bit me!” he cried.

The wicked flea hopped away as fast as he could and hid. The king’s servants came running and searched every corner of the bed. They did not find the flea. But they did find the poor little bug, who had not caused this bite, and they killed her.

That is how Mandavisarpiní lost her life, after her guest broke his promise and escaped the search.

Where this tale comes from

This fable is retold from C. H. Tawney’s translation of the Kathá Sarit Ságara (Project Gutenberg #40588), a great Sanskrit story collection made by the poet Somadeva in the eleventh century. In his translation the bed-dweller is a louse. A crafty jackal tells the story to his king, the lion, to warn him against keeping a new friend at court.

Tawney’s note compares Somadeva’s fable with the ninth story in Benfey’s German translation of the Panchatantra and with the Arabic book Kalilah and Dimnah, and lists many later European versions.

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

Best for ages 6–8 — a short fable about choosing friends carefully and about keeping your promises.

A closer reading

The bug’s rule has two parts: wait until the king sleeps and bite gently. The flea ignores both. The servants then find the easier target rather than the actual cause of the painful bite. The story is about unequal exposure to consequences as well as a broken promise.

The courtly frame adds another complication: a crafty adviser uses this tale to make a king distrust a newcomer. A story that sounds wise can still serve the teller’s interests. Readers need not conclude that kindness or welcoming all new people is a mistake.

Try this with the story

Write the flea’s promise as a two-item agreement. Mark which items he breaks, then draw where each insect is when the servants search. Explain why being discovered is not proof of causing the bite.

Questions to ask

• What two conditions does the flea accept?
• Why is the bug easier to find than the flea?
• How might the court adviser benefit from telling this story?

You may also like

• The Merchant and the Bullock — how the lion first met his new friend the bull
• The Camel, The Jackal And The Crow — another fable about false friends at a lion’s court
• The Story of the Blue Jackal — another Indian fable with a warning in it