The Cat and the Mouse

The sages told the Pandavas of the cat Lomasha and the mouse Palita, two natural enemies who saved one another in a moment of common danger, and of the cool wisdom by which the weaker outlived the stronger - a tale of self-interest, alliance, and the careful judgment by which the wise survive among the powerful.

Upon a great tree in the forest there lived a cat named Lomasha, and beneath its roots, in a burrow, lived a mouse named Palita. They were, as cat and mouse must be, natural enemies; the cat would gladly have eaten the mouse, and the mouse lived always in fear and watchfulness of the cat. Each knew the other well, and each kept his distance, the mouse never venturing where the cat could seize him, the cat watching always for his chance. So they dwelt, enemy above and enemy below, in the wary peace of those who fear one another.