Story: Tenali Rama & Cats

Long long ago there was a clever man called Tenali Ramakrishna. He was minister to a great king called Krishna Raya.

Once in that city there was lot of problems due to rats. They were eating all sorts of books and papers. They also used to make holes in wooden shelves and also eat rice. Sometimes they even nibbled the ears of little clever girls. Everybody knows that Cats Kill rats. But there were so many rats in the city but very few cats. So the king asked every house in the city to grow cats. But cats need milk to drink.

Most of the houses did not have cows. So the king gave cows to every house and asked them to grow them too. All people were happy and used to give cats lot of milk to drink.

Tenali Ramakrishna was a clever man. He decided not to give milk to cat. So the first day he boiled the milk and poured it in a pan. He gave the piping hot milk to the cat. The cat, which was hungry came and sipped the milk from the pan. Since the milk was hot it burnt its mouth. The cat ran away. The next day and the next Tenali Ramakrishna did the same thing. After a few days he stopped giving milk to the cat and started drinking it himself.

Tenali Ramakrishna’s cat was thin and hungry and all other cats were fat and happy. One day the king wanted to see all the cats given by him and give prize to the fat cat. He was very angry with Tenali Ramakrishna for not growing his cat properly. Then Tenali Ramakrishna told the king that he was not lucky since his cat did not drink any milk. The king wanted to put Tenali Ramakrishna in Jail for telling a lie and wanted him to prove what he said.

Then Tenali Ramakrishna brought the pan of milk and his cat. The cat on seeing the milk ran away. It thought that it was being given again hot milk. The king pitied Tenali Ramakrishna and let him away. The clever Tenali Ramakrishna lived happily forever drinking lots and lots of milk.