The Crow and the Snake is one of the most celebrated stories from the Panchatantra — an ancient Indian collection of fables written over two thousand years ago. This tale shows that a clever mind can solve a problem that strength alone never could.
There was once a large banyan tree at the edge of a village.
In the top branches a crow and his wife had built their nest. They had lived there for years — comfortable, safe, happy.
At the base of the same tree lived a cobra.
Every year when the crows laid eggs the cobra climbed up and ate them. The crows could do nothing. They were not strong enough to fight a cobra. They built their nest higher — the cobra followed. They tried to guard it — the cobra waited until they left.
Every year the same thing happened. Every year the nest was emptied.
The crow went to his friend the jackal and told him what had happened.
The jackal listened carefully.
"You cannot fight the cobra," the jackal said. "But you do not need to. You need to make someone else fight him for you."
He told the crow his plan.
The next morning the crow flew over the village. He found the royal garden where the king's family walked every afternoon. A princess was bathing in the garden pond — her jewellery and clothes left on the bank, attended by two servants.
The crow swooped down and picked up a gold necklace in his beak.
The servants shouted. The guards came running. The crow flew slowly — slow enough to be followed — back to the banyan tree. Back to the cobra's hole at the base.
He dropped the necklace into the hole.
The guards arrived. They looked in the hole. They could see the glint of gold — and the cobra coiled around it.
They came back with sticks and torches.
The cobra was killed. The necklace recovered.
The crow and his wife returned to their nest.
That year their eggs hatched.
You do not always need strength to solve a problem.
Sometimes a clear head is enough.
