grn9st02

A farmer, due to his efforts, reaped a rich harvest. The news spread and hearing about this good crop, very many rats came to the field to feed themselves. The abundance of well-fed fattened rats attracted a fox. The fox came to the field from the nearby jungle to kill and feed on the rats.
After the fox had a free run for a few days, the rats became aware of his intentions and would run and hide themselves in their burrows as soon as they saw the fox. The disappointed fox would return to the jungle. The fox being a clever animal said to himself, " I have to do something so that the rats come to me themselves instead of hiding from me."
The fox hit upon a clever idea. He applied vermilion on his forehead, dressed up in the clothes of a sage, carried a prayer bead in his hands and the sat on a jutting rock at the edge of the field. He closed his eyes and pretended to be in deep meditation and prayer. The rats saw all this but still did not come out of their holes.

Gradually the number of rats started decreasing, as new rats were not coming in from close by places. A wise old rat noticed and it dawned upon him that it must be the fox who was killing and eating up the rats. The fox was only pretending to be a saint.
The next day the old rat with a few of his friends hid near the rock where the fox sat. After the prayers the rats turned round to return to their holes but on this day no other rat went up to the fox to touch it's feet. The clever fox however caught a rat, which was straggling behind the returning pack, with his hind legs at the end of the returning group and was about to kill it. At this moment the hidden rats rushed out towards the fox making the loudest possible noise that they could.
This startled the fox who tried to jump up from his seat, as foxes are wont to do. He tripped over the loose saintly attire he had put on, fell down and broke his jaw. He later died of starvation as he was unable to eat anything with a broken jaw!

One very simple and very curious rat, however, slowly and noiselessly crept out of his hole and watched the fox from up close. "Oh! This fox seems to be a saint." He thought. The rat gathering courage went close to the fox. The fox saw the rat coming close from the corner of his eyes, he shut his tight and started moving the prayer bead in his hand and moving his lips, as if he was praying silently.
The rat had by now overcome his fear of the fox and asked, "Dear fox, what are you doing?"
The fox replied, " Friend I am doing severe penance. I am fasting and praying to the Almighty to atone for my sins."
The curious and innocent rat believed in what the fox said and thought that he would benefit from seeing such a pious soul every day!
He returned to his hole and told the other rats about the pious fox. He suggested, "We should join the pious fox everyday and pray to God."
From that day the rats in groups started going to the fox. They offered their prayers to God together with the fox. After the prayers when the rats turned round and returned home a few stayed back to touch the feet of the saint fox, (a custom followed in India for paying respect to saints), the fox took this opportunity to kill them and make a good meal out of them. The others never came to guess what the fox was doing and so his cunning plan worked well.