The mice and the elephants, Stories from Panchatantra for your children

Long time ago there lived a group of mice under a tree peacefully. One day a group of elephants in search of water came that way and destroyed the homes of the rats and as a result many of them were crushed to death. The king of rats decided to approach the elephant chief and request him to guide his herd through another route.

The elephant king agreed to this and took another route to the water. So the lives of the rats were saved. One day a group of elephant-hunters came and trapped the group of elephants in huge nets. Then the elephant king suddenly remembered the king of the rats. He summoned one of the elephants of his herd which had not been trapped to go and contact the king of rats.

On listening to the elephant, the rat king took his entire group of mice and they cut open the nets which trapped the elephant herd. The elephants were totally set free.

Story moral: Never under estimate people by their appearance.

Read more Panchatantra stories

• The brahmin's gift
• The Foolish lion and the clever rabbit
• The fox reared by the lion
• The Monkey and the crocodile
• The moon lake
• The Elephant and the sparrow
• The sage's daughter
• The Blue jackal
• The mongoose and the farmer's wife
• The greedy jackal
• The day dreaming priest
• The heron and the crab
• The crows and the serpent
• The gold giving serpent
• The swan and the owl
• The cat partridge and the hare
• The geese and the tortoise
• The mice and the elephants
• The bird with two necks
• The three fishes