The King Cobra's Debt

A poor farmer, walking home through the forest, spotted a great king cobra trapped by a sudden fire spreading through the dry grass, unable to escape the flames closing in around him. Without thinking of the danger to himself, the farmer beat back the fire with his cloak and carried the exhausted, smoke-choked snake to safety at the edge of a stream.

The king cobra, once recovered, told the farmer plainly that his kind remembered every debt owed and repaid them without fail, and instructed the farmer to come to a certain rock near an old temple whenever he was in true need, and call his name three times.

Years later, when a severe drought threatened to destroy the farmer's entire harvest and his family faced starvation, he remembered the promise and, doubtful but desperate, went to the rock and called. The king cobra appeared and, in gratitude, led him to a hidden spring beneath the temple ruins that never ran dry, saving not just the farmer's family but the entire nearby village, who dug a well there that provided water for generations after — a single act of courage repaid many times over.