It is an interesting story from the collection of
Jataka Tales. Once upon a time, some people from a certain town went
into a forest for an excursion. They want to enjoy the holiday to its
fullest. They took baskets full of eatables with them. They ate all the
meat they had brought with them till the noon time. They didn’t
leave anything for the dinner and suddenly realized that what they would
eat in the dinner. They wanted to enjoy the vacation and without proper
food, it was quite impossible.
One of the men said, “There is no need to worry. I will bring some
fresh meat. We will make a fire here and roast it. It will be a great
fun too”. After saying this, he took a club and went to the lake.
He knew that the animals would definitely come to the riverside for
drinking water. He lay down on the ground with a club in his hand and
pretended as if, he was dead.
After some time, a group of wolves came down to the lake. When they saw
the man lying on the riverside, they kept an eye on him for some time.
The King of the wolves said, “I think, this man is playing trick on
us. All of you stay here, while I will go and check whether he is really
dead or pretending to be dead”. So, the cunning king of the wolves
slithered up to the man and pulled his club a little cautiously. The man
pulled back his club at once.
The King of the wolves ran from the place and shouted, “If you had
been dead, you would not have pulled back you club when I tried to pull
it. I caught your trick. You pretended to be dead so that you may kill
one of us for your dinner”. The man quickly jumped up and tried to
kill the wolf. He chucked his club at the King of the Wolves.
Unfortunately, the man missed his aim and the wolf safely ran away. He
looked for the other animals, but none of them was visible. All of them
ran away.
The man got frustrated at this, but could not do anything. Thus, he
went back to his friends and said, “I tried to get fresh meat by
playing a trick on the animals, but the cunning wolf played a better
trick on me. I am sorry. I could not get fresh meat for you”.
