Beside the grand gate of the royal palace, a huge tiger was kept locked in an iron cage. To those who passed by the road in front of the palace, the tiger would fold its paws and plead, “Brother, please open this door just once.”
Hearing this, people would laugh and say, “How can that be! If we open the door, you’ll strangle us.”
Meanwhile, a grand feast was being arranged at the royal house. Renowned scholars were arriving one after another on invitation. Among them was a certain Brahmin, who looked gentle, modest, and very kind-hearted.
The tiger kept bowing to him repeatedly.
Seeing this, the Brahmin asked, “Oh tiger, you’re so polite? What do you want?”
The tiger humbly said, “Kindly open the door of the cage. I beg at your feet.”
The kind-hearted Brahmin responded to his request and opened the door.
As soon as the tiger came out of the cage, it laughed aloud and said, “Brahmin, now I must eat you.”
But the Brahmin didn’t flee. He said, “What is this! I helped you, and now you say you’ll eat me! I never imagined such ingratitude.”
The tiger said, “Everyone does the same, Brahmin. It’s a common thing.”
The Brahmin said, “No, I don’t accept that. Come, let’s ask three witnesses. If they say you’re right, then eat me. Otherwise, you’ll have to let me go.”
The tiger agreed. The two set out across the field.
As the first witness, the Brahmin pointed to a ridge in the middle of a cultivated field.
The tiger said, “Ask him.”
The Brahmin said, “Dear ridge, if someone helps another, does that one later harm him?”
The ridge replied, “Certainly. I stay between two fields and help both, but in the end, they run the plough right over me and erase me.”
The tiger said, “You heard that!”
The Brahmin said, “Now let’s go to the second witness.”
The second witness was an old banyan tree.
The Brahmin said, “Dear banyan tree, tell me, even after helping, do people harm you?”
The banyan tree said, “Of course they do. They rest in my shade, yet they cut me to collect resin, pluck my leaves, and even break my branches.”
The tiger said, “Isn’t it even clearer now?”
The Brahmin was now quite distressed. Just then, a fox was walking along that path. The Brahmin said, “There! That’s my third witness.”
The fox, standing at a distance, asked, “Tell me, what do you want to say?”
The Brahmin said, “Tell me, brother, if someone helps another, does that person later harm him?”
The fox said, “Whose help and harm are you talking about? Please explain clearly.”
When the Brahmin explained everything in detail, the fox said, “I can’t understand without seeing it. Show me the cage and the road.”
Everyone returned to the cage. The fox looked around and said, “Alright, now explain in detail.”
The Brahmin began to say, “The tiger was inside the cage…”
The fox interrupted, “You mean the tiger was inside the Brahmin?”
The tiger shouted, “No no, I was in the cage, the Brahmin was walking on the road.”
The fox said, “Then the tiger was on the road, and the Brahmin was in the cage?”
Losing patience, the tiger said, “No! I was in the cage, like this…”
While speaking, the tiger entered the cage again. The fox quickly shut the door and said, “Now I understand, one should never help the wicked.”
Then the fox went into the forest, and the Brahmin went to the feast.