The Elephant and the Tailor

A royal elephant passed a tailor's shop each morning on his way to bathe in the river, and the kind tailor made a habit of feeding him a piece of fruit through the window every single day, a small gesture the elephant clearly enjoyed and looked forward to.

One day, in an uncharacteristic moment of cruelty, the tailor instead pricked the elephant's trunk sharply with his needle as a thoughtless prank, laughing at the animal's startled reaction before returning to his sewing without a second thought.

The elephant said nothing and continued to the river as usual — but on his way back, he filled his trunk with muddy water from the riverbank and, passing the shop again, sprayed the tailor and his entire freshly cleaned workshop with filthy water, ruining a day's finished garments completely. The tailor, understanding immediately what had prompted this, never pricked the elephant again — having learned that even the gentlest creature remembers cruelty as clearly as kindness, and eventually answers each in kind.