Home > Mind , Body & Soul > Grandma stories >The jackal who killed no elephants Once upon a time, a lion and a lioness lived together in a forest. One day, two little cubs were born to them. The lion and the lioness were very happy.

The lion said to the lioness, "You must stay at home and look after the babies until they grow up. I shall go out and bring you all the food you need."

Every day, the lion went hunting and brought home enough food. One day however, he could find no animal to kill. In the evening as he was returning home, he found a baby jackal. He picked it up and took it to the lioness. "This little jackal is the only food I could find for you today," said the lion. "Kill him and eat him. I could not kill him because he is just a baby."

"My dear," replied the lioness, "then how do you think I can kill him? I am the mother of two babies. No, I shall do him no harm. He shall be my third son. So the lioness looked after the baby jackal. He lived with her two cubs and the three babies grew up together.

They ran about and played together. One day, a wild elephant came into the forest. The lion cubs followed him. They wanted to kill the elephant. But their brother, the young jackal, was frightened. "Don't go near him," cried the jackal, "he is an elephant and he will kill you!" And the jackal ran away. When they saw their brother running away, the lion cubs also lost courage and ran home.

The lion cubs told their mother and father about the elephant and how their brother jackal had got scared of the elephant and run away. The young jackal heard this. He felt very hurt. He was angry and began to shout at the young lions. He told them he was not a coward; he was as brave as they were. "Come out and fight with me if you dare," he said.

The lioness took the young jackal aside. "You should not talk like that to your brothers," she said. But this only made the jackal angrier. "What right have they to make fun of me?" he said. "Am I not as brave as they are? I will show them my strength. I will kill them both!" But the lioness only smiled at the jackal.

"You are brave," she said, "and you are also handsome, and you have brains. But, you see, jackals do not kill lions." "What do you mean?" he asked. "Listen to me, my boy," replied the lioness. "Your mother was a jackal. I took pity on you. I brought you up like one of my own children. My sons do not know that you are a jackal. But now you should run away and live with your own people. If you don't, my children will kill you and eat you up."

The young jackal got frightened and quickly ran away.