A long time ago there lived a group of frogs in a well. Gangadatta was a king among the frogs who ruled over the frogs from a long time. But the problem is that his relatives and some of his friends always irritating to him and found fault in every small thing. He was fed up with them so wanted to move to a distant place. Thus one day he climbed up the water wheel in the well and then left the place. But he wanted to take revenge from them due to which he had to leave his kingdom.

One day when he was planning for taking revenge from his relatives he saw a cobra entering his hole. Suddenly an idea struck in his mind. He thought of a plan of having his friends eaten up by the cobra if cobra helped him. Thus he immediately reached to the entrance of the hole of the cobra and said, “Dear, I want to become friend of you. Please accept my friendship. I am the king of the frogs.”

As the cobra heard this, he realised that it was not the voice of his nearest or dearest one, but of his natural enemy. So he decided not to leave the hole and come out from it. He thought that someone might be trying to be fool him to catch him, either through magic words or may be flute or even other things. After some time the cobra answered him carefully, “Who are you? What nonsense do you talking about friendship? Don’t you know that you are my natural enemy? Can a timber and fire ever be friends?

Then the king of frogs relied to him, “My Dear, indeed your words are true. But the reality is that I want to take revenge from my relatives who suffered me for many years. So now I want to teach them a lesson for which I need your help. Please help me. I can lead you to the well, which is my abandoned kingdom and then you can eat as many frogs as you want to eat. In this way I take my revenge and you also get your food.”

As the cobra heard this he thought for a while and said, “Dear, a well is built of many layers of stones and I have no legs. Then how it’s possible for me to get into the well without legs.”He continued, “Even if I manage to get into the well then where will I able to sit into the well and eat the frogs as well is filled with water. It’s totally ridiculous, so just go away.”

But the king did not want to spoil his plan so he assured the cobra and said, “My Dear friend, there is a nice comfortable hole at the edge of the water where you can sit properly and eat the frogs. I assure you that I will lead you to the inside of the well and to that comfortable hole. Don’t worry for anything but you have to promise me that you will eat only my irritating relatives and not my dear ones." 

The cobra began to think that he became old now and the offer was good for him so it’s his stupidity to go away such an offer. Then the cobra agreed to the friendship of the king of frog and he followed him. As planned the cobra reached the hole into the well and whenever he felt hungry he eat one of the frog among them. As days passed away the number of frogs came down and all the annoying frogs were exhausted.

One day the cobra called out to the king of frog and said to him, “Dear, there are no more frogs here to eat me, except your friends. I am very hungry please give me some more food to eat. You are my friend, please help me. It is you who led me here for fulfil his plan, now it’s your responsibility to provide food to me.”

As the king of frogs heard this he realised his mistake but now he could not did anything except watching the cobra to eat all his friends. Even all his close friends and relatives were eaten up, the cobra eat his son also. Days passed away and no more frogs remain in the well, the cobra was very hungry and wanted the king of frogs to give some more frogs to him.

The Gangadatta realised that all the frogs were killed except him who remain alive. He wanted to get rid from cobra so he made a plan. He assured the cobra that if he let him leave the well, he will give some more frogs from the other wells to him, so that the cobra would be able to satisfy his hunger. The cobra agreed with him and he let the king of frog to do so. The king of frogs went away from the well to never return there. The cobra was very anxiously waited for him for several days but he did not return.

After a long time of waiting, the cobra requested a female lizard that lived in the walls of the well, to request the king of frogs to return into the well as he could not live alone without his best friend. The lizard approached the king of frogs and conveyed the cobra’s message. The king of frogs replied her, “Dear Madam, please convey my message to the cobra that I will never return to the well again. He is a starving person, and a starving person can be cruel and go to any extent of misdeed.

Thus, the king of frogs saved himself, and the greedy cobra had died with hunger into the well.

The wise indeed say:

Fight your own battles; else you will surely be destroyed.

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