The Gold-Giving Snake

A poor Brahmin noticed a snake living in an anthill in his garden and, out of respect for it as a guardian spirit of the land, began leaving it a small bowl of milk each morning. To his astonishment, each evening he found a single gold coin in the empty bowl.

Soon the family was comfortable, and the Brahmin's son, growing impatient with just one coin a day, decided to dig up the anthill entirely and take all the gold at once, certain the snake must be hoarding a fortune inside.

He struck at the snake with a stick before it could escape, wounding it badly — and found nothing buried beneath the anthill at all, no treasure, only dirt. The snake survived and fled, and though the Brahmin returned with milk every morning after, hoping to make amends, the snake — now too wary to ever trust him again — never came back for it.