A man, hunting one day in the forest, met a tiger. At first each was
afraid of the other; but after some talking they became quite friendly.
They agreed to live together for a little time. First the man would
live with the tiger in his forest home for two weeks. Then the tiger
would come and live in the man’s home.
The tiger behaved so well to the man during his visit that the man felt
he had never been so well treated in all his life. Then came the time
for the tiger to return home with the man. As they were going the tiger
was somewhat afraid. He asked the man if he really thought he would be
safe. “What if your friends do not like my face and kill me?” he asked.
“You need fear nothing,” said his host; “no one will touch you while I
am there.” The tiger therefore came to the man’s house and stayed with
him three weeks. He had brought his male cub with him, and the young
tiger became very friendly with the man’s son.
Some months later the man’s father died. When Tiger heard of his
friend’s great loss, he and his cub set out at once to see and condole
with him. They brought a large sum of money to help the man.
As Tiger was going home again two of the man’s friends lay in hiding
for him and shot him. Fortunately he was not killed, but he was very
much grieved lest these men had shot him at his friend’s wish. He
determined to find out if the man had known anything at all about the
shot.
Accordingly he went to the place in the forest where he had first met
his friend. There he lay down as if he were dead, after telling his cub
to watch and see what would happen.
By and by the man came along. When he saw the tiger lying, as he
thought, dead, he was terribly troubled. He began to cry and mourn for
his friend, and sat there all night long with Tiger’s cub, to watch
that no harm should befall the body.
When morning came and Tiger was quite assured that his friend had had
nothing at all to do with the shot, he was very glad. He got up, then,
to the man’s great astonishment, and explained why he had pretended to
be dead.
“Go home,” said Tiger, “and remember me always. In future for your sake
I will never touch a man unless he first meddles with me.”