The Brahmin's Faithful Mongoose

A Brahmin and his wife had, for many years, longed for a child, and when at last a son was born to them, their joy knew no bounds. Around the same time, the wife took in an orphaned mongoose kit and raised it alongside their baby. The two grew up together, and the mongoose loved the child as fiercely as if he were its own, guarding his cradle day and night.

One morning, the Brahmin's wife needed to fetch water from the village well. "Watch over our son," she told her husband, "I won't be long." But the Brahmin, restless himself, decided to step out to see a friend, leaving the baby asleep in his cradle with only the mongoose standing guard beside him.

While the house stood empty, a black cobra slid in through a crack near the door, drawn toward the cradle and the sleeping child within. The mongoose saw it at once and threw itself at the snake without hesitation. The two fought fiercely across the floor, and though the cobra was deadly, the mongoose fought with all its strength and love, tearing at the snake until it lay dead. Bloodied but triumphant, the mongoose ran to the doorway to greet the Brahmin's wife the moment she returned, eager to show her what it had done.

She looked down and saw the mongoose's mouth and paws smeared with blood, and her heart stopped. Certain the creature had turned on her child, she dropped her water pot and, in a single moment of blind panic, struck the mongoose down before it could make a sound.

Only then did she rush inside — and find her son sleeping peacefully in his cradle, and the body of the great cobra lying dead upon the floor beside it.

The truth broke over her all at once, and she fell to her knees beside the loyal friend she had killed, weeping bitterly for what could never be undone.