The Story of the Cat Who Served the Lion

Damanaka the jackal had frightened the Lion King with talk of a terrible danger, and the King had rewarded him and his brother Karataka with a splendid dinner. Karataka asked why Damanaka did not simply tell the King that the scary noise was only a bull bellowing. “What, and put His Majesty’s mind at rest?” laughed Damanaka. “Then where would our fine dinners be? Remember what happened to Curd-ear the Cat.” And he told this story.

Far away in the north, on a mountain called Thousand Crags, there lived a lion named Mighty-heart. He was very much bothered by a mouse, who used to nibble his mane while he lay asleep in his den. The Lion would wake up furious to find the ends of his magnificent mane all ragged, but the little mouse always ran into its hole, and he could never catch it.

After thinking hard, the Lion went down to a village and, with a great deal of coaxing, persuaded a cat named Curd-ear to come and live in his cave. He fed the Cat like a king on all sorts of treats, and he slept soundly without having his mane chewed, because the mouse did not dare to come out any more. Whenever the Lion heard the mouse scratching about, he would give the Cat an even grander feast.

But one day the poor mouse, almost starving, plucked up the courage to creep out of its hole, and Curd-ear pounced on it at once and killed it. After that the Lion heard no more of the mouse, and he stopped giving the Cat his special dinners.

“No,” said Damanaka, “we shall keep our mouse alive for His Majesty.”

About this telling

In the Hitopadesa, the jackal Damanaka tells this little fable to his brother Karataka. He has just discovered that the noise frightening their king is only a bull, and he means to keep that a secret so that the Lion will go on needing the jackals.

Arnold’s English version, from the Sanskrit, is followed closely here, since the fable is so short.

Read the original: Sir Edwin Arnold, The Book of Good Counsels from the Hitopadesa (Project Gutenberg #13268, The Cat Who Served the Lion)

Best for ages 6–8 — a very short Hitopadesa fable about a lion, a cat and a mouse, with a sly lesson about being needed.

A closer reading

The lion rewards the visible presence of danger rather than the completed work of protection. While the mouse scratches, the cat receives special meals; when the problem ends, the reward ends too. Damanaka reads that arrangement as an incentive to preserve fear.

His conclusion is a strategy for manipulating the king, not neutral advice the reader must adopt. A different lesson concerns how the lion recognizes service: if solving a problem brings neglect, dependents may be tempted to keep problems alive. Fair treatment can acknowledge prevention and completed work, even when neither produces a continuing alarm.

Try this with the story

Draw a three-stage line: mouse active, mouse hidden, mouse gone. Under each, note the cat’s work and the lion’s reward. Design a fair agreement that would not punish the cat for success.

Think about it

• Why does scratching make the lion reward the cat?
• What incentive does Damanaka notice?
• How could the lion acknowledge help after the danger ends?

More stories like this

• The Story of the Washerman’s Donkey — another fable told by the jackals of the Hitopadesa
• The Story of the Terrible Bell — the next tale the jackal Damanaka tells at the lion’s court
• The Story of the Tiger and the Traveller — another Hitopadesa fable about a sly animal