Short Stories for Children

                      THE JACKAL AND THE WOLF

There lived a jackal and a wolf in a forest. They were good friends. One day, they were wandering in the forest searching for food. The wolf desired to know how far the jackal was educated and so he asked the jackal " friend, how educated are you?".
The jackal was smart, he replied "friend, who taught me? I am only half educated. How about you?", the jackal asked.
"I am not like you. I am much educated" said the wolf proudly.
"Then you have to lead the way sir. Afterall I am not that educated as you are. An educated person is always honoured everywhere", said the jackal.
The wolf led the way. Both of them walked a distance, suddenly they heard the roar of a lion. The lion was approaching them as if he was very hungry. The wolf got worried.
The jackal said "We are in danger. As you are more educated than me why don't you think of a way to escape from the lion?".
The wolf started trembling with fear and he said, "Oh!!! What sort of education....forget it!!! Now find a way out of this or else both of us are finished", he said.
"I am not that educated as you are but sure I am going to find a way out of this...just wait and watch", said the jackal.
Jackal was wise enough. He himself approached the lion and saluting him he said "Oh!!! King of the forest, May you live long. We are friends. Now we are a little disturbed. It is our fortune that we met you.We think we will get justice at your hands", said the jackal.
The lion felt very proud and he said "I know you are always good friends but what is the matter...what went wrong...do tell me".
"Your honour, today I caught 2 cocks and 2 chickens but the wolf is claiming a share from my catch. As he is my dear friend I gave him 2 chickens already but he doesn't seem to be satisfied at all...Now he is asking me to share the 2 cocks also. How can I give him a share in my catch and that too he is being too selfish to ask for so much from my catch...I request you to help us to sort out the problem" jackal reported.
The lion thought over the dispute for a while and being selfish he thought that it was a good opportunity to have the 2 cocks and 2 chickens first for meal and then he could kill both jackal and the wolf.
"Jackal, first let me see the catch. Only then i can decide on this", said the lion.
The jackal understood the mischief being played by the lion and so he said, "Your honour, I understand what you mean but I have left the catch in my den and the den is a short distance from here, you might have to take trouble to get there".
"Why not?" said the lion.
The jackal led the  lion to his den. The den was very small, only the jackal and the wolf could get into it and not the lion.
The wolf entered into the den first saying that he would get the catch out.
The lion was waiting for quite sometime outside his den. Then the jackal said to the lion "Oh king! The wolf might have eaten the cocks and the chickens by this time. Please permit me to go inside and bring him out along with the catch".
The lion roared, "do it early, I want to go".
The jackal went inside but he too didn't come out.
The lion roared in anger and said "Oh Jackal! Oh wolf! What are you both doing there? Can't you see I am waiting here???".
The jackal was clever, he replied from his den "Your Majesty, We ourselves have settled our dispute and we don't need your help".
The lion got very wild but couldn't help doing anything and so he simply went to the forest to look for something else to eat.
The wolf admitted that the jackal was more clever.