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THE JACKAL AND THE OTTERS
Once a jackal wanted to eat some fresh Rohita fish. He went to the river and was wondering how he would catch one when he saw from a distance that two otters had dragged a big Rohita fish to the bank. He drew nearer and overheard their conversation.
Each otter was asking the other to cut the fish in half because their rule was that the one who doesn’t cut the fish gets to pick his piece first.
The jackal decided to step in.
“Hello my friends,” he said. “What is the matter?”
“We can’t decide who should cut this fish to divide it between us,” the otters replied. “How about if you do it for us?” one of the otters suggested.
The jackal was waiting for this opportunity and replied, “Certainly, I have settled many such disputes before.”
The jackal then cut off the head and the tail and gave a piece to each otter.
“This is good,” the otters said. “But what is he going to do with the middle portion, which has most of the meat?”
The jackal picked up the middle portion and put in his basket. “This I shall keep as my fees,” he announced.
The jackal ran off with the best portion of the fish!
“If only we had trusted each other instead of inviting an outsider to settle our dispute,” the otters sadly said to each other.