Panchatantra

Cobra and Frog

A frog king was living in well with its family members and many relatives. But some of the relatives were always in the habit of cheating the frog king. The frog king was fed up of such relatives and wanted to get rid of them. One day, he had a chance encounter with a cobra. Cobra was quite hungry and wanted to finish off the frog. But the frog king made a deal with the cobra and invited him to live in the well. This; the frog king thought; was a surefire way of getting rid of his relatives.

Cobra gets invitation

Cobra was too happy to grab this opportunity. The frog king marked his enemy frogs and it was presumed that the cobra would eat only from those enemies. Some time elapsed and with that all the enemy frogs were finished by the cobra. Now, the cobra was in no mood to leave the well and wanted to feast on the remaining frogs. The frog king was trapped in its own murky plan. He began to send one of his relatives to the cobra to escape the wrath of the cobra. Finally, a day came when the frog king had to send his son to the gallows. Now, the frog king was the only frog left in the well.

cobra and frog in well

Frog is in danger

When the cobra came to eat frog king, he said that there was no use of eating the last frog in the well. The king frog said that he would go to another well and bring many frogs along with him, so cobra should allow him to go. The cobra was trapped in the glib talk of frog king. But once the frog king escaped the imminent death, he never came back to the well.

The moral of the story is, "Your enemy's enemy is your friend may not be always true".