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.

Now there came a hunter to that part of the forest, who set his traps and snares about the great tree. And one night it happened that the cat Lomasha, prowling in the dark, was caught fast in the hunter's net, snared and held and unable to free himself, in terror of the hunter who would come at dawn to kill him. At that very time the mouse Palita, creeping out to forage, found himself in danger too: for there was a mongoose lurking nearby, eager to seize and eat him, and an owl watching from above, ready to swoop, so that the mouse was hemmed in by deadly enemies on every side.

So both the cat and the mouse, the old enemies, found themselves in mortal danger at the very same moment - the cat snared in the net and helpless, the mouse beset by the mongoose and the owl. And in that instant the mouse saw that his own peril and the cat's might be turned to the saving of them both; for the very net that trapped the cat, if the mouse were near it, would shield the mouse from the mongoose and the owl, who would not dare come close to the cat. The danger of each, the clever mouse perceived, might become the safety of both, if only an alliance could be struck between enemies.

The mouse Palita went boldly to the snared cat and proposed a bargain. 'You are caught in the hunter's net,' he said, 'and at dawn the hunter will come and kill you; you cannot free yourself, for only sharp teeth can gnaw through these cords, and you have none that can reach them. I have such teeth. And I, for my part, am beset by the mongoose and the owl, who will surely take me if I am left exposed. Let us then make a pact: let me come and shelter close against you, under the protection of your presence, so that the mongoose and the owl dare not approach me; and in return I will gnaw through the cords of the net and set you free before the hunter comes. So shall I be safe through the night, and you be freed before the dawn. Each of us has what the other needs; let us help one another.'

The cat, snared and desperate, agreed at once, for he had no other hope of life. So the mouse crept close against the cat, sheltered by his very enemy from the mongoose and the owl, who, seeing the mouse pressed against the cat, gave up and slunk away; and the mouse, safe now, began to gnaw at the cords of the net. So the two enemies became, for that night, allies bound by need, each preserving the other, the mouse safe under the cat and the cat being freed by the mouse.

But the wise mouse Palita did not gnaw through the net all at once, for he knew that the moment the cat was free, the cat would be his enemy again and would surely try to eat him. So he gnawed slowly and with cunning calculation, cutting the cords little by little through the night, but leaving the last strand or two uncut, keeping the cat still half-snared and dependent on him - so that the cat would not be wholly free, and thus would not turn upon the mouse, until the very last and safest moment.

The mouse timed his work with care: he meant to cut the final cords only at the very instant the hunter appeared at dawn, so that the cat, freed at last, would have to flee at once from the hunter and would have no chance to seize the mouse. Thus the mouse kept the cat needing him until the danger of the hunter's coming would itself drive the cat away. He gnawed neither too fast, which would free the cat too soon to his own peril, nor too slow, which would leave the cat snared for the hunter; but with cool judgment he held the cat poised between hope and helplessness, freeing him just enough and no more, biding his time for the one moment that would save them both and yet keep the mouse safe.

The cat, as the night wore on and the cords were nearly all cut, grew impatient and uneasy, and urged the mouse to hurry and finish freeing him. 'Why do you delay?' he said. 'You have cut almost all the cords; cut the last and free me now. Do you not trust me, after I have let you shelter against me all this night? Hurry, friend, before the hunter comes.' He coaxed and pressed the mouse, eager to be free, perhaps already thinking of the meal the mouse would make once the net was off him.

But the mouse was not deceived by the cat's coaxing. 'Be patient,' he answered calmly. 'I know my own business and the right time for it. I will cut the last cords at the proper moment, and not before. For I know well that the instant you are wholly free, our alliance ends and you become my enemy again; you have helped me only because you were trapped and needed me, and I have helped you only for my own safety. I will free you - but at the moment that serves my safety as well as yours, and not at the moment that serves only yours. Until then, you must wait.' And the cat, helpless, had to submit to the mouse's judgment, for he could not free himself.

At dawn the hunter appeared, coming toward the tree to see what his net had caught. And in that very instant, with the hunter almost upon them, the mouse Palita swiftly cut the last cords of the net and freed the cat. The cat, suddenly loosed and seeing the hunter close at hand, had no thought now for the mouse at all, but fled for his life, bounding up the tree and away to safety; and the mouse, in the same moment, darted into his burrow, safe in the earth. The hunter found his net empty, both creatures gone.

So the mouse's cool timing saved them both and yet kept himself safe: by freeing the cat at the last possible moment, when the hunter's coming forced the cat to flee at once, he gave the cat no chance to turn on him. The alliance had served its purpose for each, and ended the instant the need that bound them was gone. The cat escaped the hunter, the mouse escaped the cat, and each survived - the stronger saved by the weaker, and the weaker saved by his own careful judgment, neither trusting the other a moment longer than need required.

Afterward the cat, from the safety of the tree, called down to the mouse and tried to renew their friendship, praising the mouse for saving him and proposing that they remain friends and allies now, as they had been in the night. But the mouse, wise and unsentimental, declined. 'We were allies,' he said, 'only because we each had need of the other; you helped me because you were trapped, and I helped you because I was in danger, and each of us served his own safety, not the other's sake. Now that the need is past, we are what we always were - cat and mouse, enemy and enemy. I will not come within your reach again, mistaking a friendship of need for a friendship of the heart. I am grateful, and I bear you no hatred; but I am not foolish.'

The mouse explained the cool truth of their alliance: that it had been a thing of mutual interest only, real and useful while the need lasted, but not to be mistaken for true friendship that would outlast the need. He had allied with his enemy when it served them both, and he would keep apart from his enemy now that the danger was gone; and in this clear-eyed judgment - neither refusing a useful alliance nor trusting it beyond its cause - lay the wisdom by which the weak mouse had outlived every danger and kept his life among creatures far stronger than himself.

The sages drew the lessons of the tale for the Pandavas.

'See, first, how even enemies may rightly become allies when a common danger or a common need binds them, and how the wise do not refuse a useful alliance even with a foe. The cat and the mouse, natural enemies, saved one another because each had need of the other; and there was wisdom in it, for to spurn an alliance that serves you, merely because it is with an enemy, is folly. When interest binds you to another, even a foe, you may join with him for as long as the interest lasts.

'But see, above all, the cool judgment by which the weaker survived. The mouse allied with the cat, but trusted him not one moment beyond need: he freed the cat slowly, at the last safe instant, and kept apart from him the moment the danger passed, knowing that a friendship of need is not a friendship of the heart, and ends when the need ends. The tale teaches the hard wisdom by which the weak survive among the strong: to know your own interest clearly, to ally when it serves and part when it ceases to serve, to trust no alliance beyond its cause, and never to mistake a partnership of mutual need for true and lasting friendship. Be neither too suspicious to make use of allies, nor so trusting as to be devoured; but judge each bond coolly by the need that makes it, as the wise mouse did.'

And the Pandavas, who would have to weigh many alliances of need among friends and foes, took to heart the tale of the cat and the mouse and the cool wisdom of the weak.