Panchatantra: Self-Defeating Forethought

From The Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharma, translated by Arthur W. Ryder (1925).

Self-Defeating Forethought

[This story is inserted into Mother Shandilee's Bargain.]

"Bearing this in mind, even the poor should give to the right person at the right time - though the gift seems beneath contempt. For

Great faith, a gift appropriate,
Fit time, a fit recipient,
An understanding heart - and gifts
Are blest beyond all measurement.

And some quote this:

Indulge in no excessive greed
(A little helps in time of need)
But one, by greed excessive led,
Perceived a topknot on his head."

"How was that?" asked the wife. And the Brahman told the story of Self-Defeating Forethought.*

There was once a hillman in a certain place who set out to increase his sins by hunting. As he walked along, he met a boar that resembled the top of Sooty Mountain. Straightway he drew an arrow as far as his ear, and recited this verse:

The fitted shaft and bow-string's tension
He sees, and shows no apprehension;
The psychological conclusion
Is: Death has prompted this intrusion.

Then with a sharp arrow he shot the boar, who in turn angrily tore the hillman's stomach with a pointed fang that shone like the crescent moon, so that the man fell dead. The boar also, after killing the hunter, died in torment from the arrow-wound.

At this point a starving jackal reached the spot in his aimless wanderings. When he spied a boar and a hunter, both dead, he gleefully thought: "Fate is kind to me, providing this unlooked-for store of food. There is wisdom in the verse:

The fruit of actions good or bad
In each preceding state,
Without a further effort, comes
Upon us, brought by fate.

And again:

Each deed from every time and place
And age, as consequence
Brings good or evil in exact
And fitting recompense.

"Now I will eat in such a way as to have sustenance for many days. I will begin with the sinew wrapped round the bow-tip. I will hold it in my paws and eat very slowly. For the saying goes:

Consumption of a treasure earned
Should very slowly follow,
As wise men sip elixir down,
Not bolt it at a swallow."

After these reflections, he took into his mouth the sinew with its end hanging from the bow. And when the gut snapped, the bow-tip pierced the roof of his mouth and came out like a topknot. And the jackal perished from the pain of it.

"And that is why I say:

Indulge in no excessive greed
(A little helps in time of need)
But one, by greed excessive led,
Perceived a topknot on his head."