Once upon a time, there lived a tiger in a forest. In his youth, he slayed a wealthy merchant and kept as a souvenir, a sparkling gold bangle or kada. With the passing years, he became too old to hunt. He was hungry, morose, and licking his aching limbs as he rested near a marsh. His eyes fell on a shiny object. The tiger had heard stories of how human beings loved gold and that they were greedy for it. Therefore, he decided to use the bangle to trap a human prey. Just then, he heard footsteps of a traveler.
Tiger and the gold bangle
The tiger wondered what a delicious meal he would make. He held the bangle in his paw and asked the traveler, “Would you like to take this gold bangle? I don’t need it”. As soon as the traveler saw the bangle, he wanted to take it, but he hesitated to approach the Tiger. Though he knew it would be risky, he still sought the gold Bangle. He planned to be cautious, so he asked the Tiger, “How can I trust you? I know you are a beast and would harm me.”
The tiger replied weakly, “Traveler, when I was young, I was wicked, but now I have changed for the better. I took the advice of a sage and reformed myself. I want to kind to everyone in this world. I am old. My teeth and claws are blunt. So, there is no need to fear me”. The traveler was thus seduced by the tiger’s words. His love of gold soon overtook his fear of the Tiger. He stepped into the marsh without knowing its depth and got stuck in it.
“All out of longing for a golden bangle, The Tiger, in the mud, the man did mangle.”
Hitopadeśa
On seeing this, the Tiger consoled the traveler. He said “Don’t worry. I will help you; just grab my paws”. The tiger pulled the man out, but before he could get up and run away, pounced on him. In the last moments of his life, the traveler realized how he had been fooled by the tiger’s words. “If only I had not let my greed overcome my reason, I could be alive” he thought. He took one last look at the gold bangle before the tiger killed him. In this way, the traveler became a victim of greed, and tiger could execute his evil mission.
Reference – Hitopadeśa
This story is one of the many moral stories from Hitopadeśa, a collection of short moral stories in Sanskrit. The origin of this text is contested. Several stories including this story (Titled the Tiger and the traveler) in the English translation of Hitopadeśa by Sir Edwin Arnold, 1861 is attributed to Panchatantra – a collection of moral stories by Vishnu Sharma. The uniqueness of Hitopadeśa is that it works in the story within a story format. The story of the tiger and the gold bangle is narrated by the king of pigeons to his subjects to warn them about the repercussions of being greedy.
Note
All stories have been collected from various sources, including oral histories and temple histories and compiled to form one narrative. Hence, there may be differences from the master narrative. The project hopes only to be a curator of stories and not an expert on history, religion or iconography.