Blue Jakal

THE BLUE JACKAL
This story is from the panchatantra. A big jackal lived in a forest. Once it went to a village, to find some food. The villagers beat it up with huge sticks. The jackal ran for life. While running it fell into a large tub filled with blue dye. On the way it had to cross a river. It was surprised to see its reflection in water. The jackal had turned blue! It had a brilliant idea. It wanted to become the king of the forest. The jackal at once spoke to a monkey. “O monkey! Go now and announce to the entire forest that I am the new king. Looking at the blue colour, the monkey thought this must be some extraordinary animal. The monkey sat on a donkey and by beating of drums announced the jackal’s orders. It invited all the animals to the court of the new king.
The clever rabbit was the first to speak. “We all know that the lion is our king. Who could be this new king?”. A fox said, “Who knows? I hope he will be a good king”. The lion was very confused. “I must see who the new king is? He is perhaps stronger than me”, it thought to itself.
The next day all the animals reached the court of the new king. The blue jackal made a speech. “My dear animals ! Welcome to my forest. I am very happy to see you all here. God is great. He has sent me as your new king. Whoever speaks against God’s wish will be punished”. All the animals shouted, “ Long live the new king”.-(2)
“Silence” shouted the blue jackal. “Listen to me! This is my order! All the jackals living here should go out of the forest”. The jackals were shocked. “Your Majesty! Where can we go?”.   “Go to hell! This is God’s command”, shouted the blue jackal. It was afraid that its true identity would be known. All the jackals went away from the forest.
The new king made the lion his Chief minister and the tiger as Army General. The lion and the tiger thanked the new king.
The jackals that had gone away were worried. But an old intelligent jackal advised them, “Brothers, the new king looks exactly...