The Bug and the Flea
Panchatantra Stories · 1 min read
A bedbug living quietly in the folds of a king's mattress had, for years, fed carefully each night after the king fell asleep, taking only what it needed and slipping away before dawn, never once being noticed.
One evening a flea, hopping from a passing dog, landed on the same bed and was delighted by the smell of the king's rich blood. "Let me taste him now, this instant," the flea begged, "he smells absolutely wonderful, I cannot wait until he sleeps."
The bug warned him firmly. "Wait until he's fully asleep, as I always do, or he'll feel it and we'll both be found out." But the flea, unable to control himself, bit the king the very moment he lay down, before sleep had taken him at all.
The king yelped and sat up at once, calling for his servants to search the bed thoroughly. The flea, quick and small, hopped away and escaped easily — but the bug, slower and having done nothing wrong at all, was found and crushed for a crime that was entirely someone else's.
Moral of the story
Impatience often causes harm that falls not on the impatient one, but on someone innocent nearby.