A Summary Of A Story That I Liked Very Much

by Dyuthi Balakrishna

Fremont, California

8 years old

   I can read stories from Kannada books. My favorite Kannada story was '' Nariya Upaaya'' from " Pancha Thantra". Now I will give you a summary of the story.

One day a fox (nari) was hunting for food. When he finally found some food under a tree, he ate the food and started back to his den. When he came near the den, he saw lion pawprints! Then he looked even more carefully at the pawprints. He saw the pawprints going in to the den, but no trace of pawprints going out of the den. Being very clever, the fox thought about the possible danger for his life. So the fox made a plan. He said to the den, ''Oh friend, you always say, 'Hello' and call me in. Why are you so quiet today?'' Then the lion believed that the den talked, so the lion then said, ''Friend, do come in. I was just sleeping and did not realize you came."

  Now the fox was sure that the lion was in the den, so the fox ran as fast as his legs would carry him. In Kannada the sentence was very beautiful: "kaalige budhdhi heLlithu". After all, a fox does not want to be a lion's lunch!  I liked this story because it had a very good moral: if we use our wisdom we can escape from danger.