So when Garuda arrived, the tortoises said to him, “Shall we have a match first?  If you are faster than one of us, you may eat one of us every year, otherwise you will leave us in peace.”  Garuda did not think he could lose that wager so he agreed.  The winner would be the first to reach the opposite beach.  Garuda flew across in a few moments, leaving the competing tortoise, who was swimming, far behind.  On the opposite beach, already waiting, was another tortoise, which looked, at least to Garuda, exactly like the first.  So, Garuda acknowledged defeat and flew away.

“You see,” said the frog, “the tortoises won because they were well organized and worked together successfully.  That is how we shall be able to overcome the formidable elephant.  And if we cannot do it by ourselves we may succeed in forging an alliance with a powerful being like the plover.”

“How was that story?” asked the fly, and the frog resumed his story-telling.

“On a certain beach plovers had made their nest, but the eggs were washed away by the sea.  The plovers complained to Garuda and Garuda pleaded their case with Wisnu.  Wisnu went to the sea god to ask for the eggs and then gave them to Garuda.  This is how the plovers recovered their lost eggs—by the grace of Wisnu.”

“That is a good story,” exclaimed the fly.  “Now let us begin our work, for without work nothing is obtained, as the hunter who had always lived in the jungle discovered when he had first tasted butter.  He wanted it so much that he bought the cow from whose milk the butter had been made and took her home.  There he asked the cow to give him some butter, but since he knew nothing about milking, the cow could not give him anything!”

Thus spoke the fly, whereupon the woodpecker answered, “Well spoken, dear fly, yet we have to be very strong together, for whoever is the strongest wins, like the time I found a tiger choking on a bone.  He promised me the heart of a hare if I removed the bone from his throat.  I did so in a jiffy.  A long time later I found the tiger killing a hare.   I claimed the heart, but the tiger versified:

I am the master of the wilderness.
You want to share my prey, that’s cheekiness!
Count yourself lucky that, when you removed that bone,
I did not eat you up.  And now, leave me alone!