The tortoise implored them to take him with them.  They consented and devised an ingenious method for transporting him.  He was to hold on with his mouth to the middle of a stick, one end of which each of the two geese was to hold in his bill.  “Remember!” warned the geese, “Don’t open your mouth!”

The geese managed to take off and succeeded in carrying the tortoise for a long way.  Then they happened to fly over a pair of jackals, who looked up and cried mockingly:  “Look, two geese carrying a piece of cowdung on a stick!”  Furious, the tortoise cried: “No, I am the noble tortoise!” As he spoke, he fell down to earth, crashed on a rock, and broke his carapace.  The jackals ate him for dinner.

“You see,” said Sambada to the king, “this tortoise ought to have heeded the advice of his trusted friends!  Similarly, O King, please listen to us, your longtime councilors, and not to the bull, who is a newcomer!”

The lion-king, however, was impressed by the bull’s learning and offered him his friendship.  The bull answered, “We may live for one of the following purposes: personal gain (artha), the pleasures of the flesh (kama), or the pursuit of justice (dharma).  I chose the latter and I will gladly help you to rule your kingdom.”

Having failed to turn the lion against the bull, the jackal Sambada now tried the bull.  “O learned son of Siwa,” began the jackal, “I must warn you, in your own interests, that the king, our lord, is a tyrant.  We have to find a way to dispose of him.”

“How do I know that your plan is a good one?” asked the bull.  “Do you not know how the louse was killed because of the greed of the bedbug?”

“How was that?” asked the jackal, and the bull began his story.

Once upon a time there was a louse whose name was Asada and who lived in the king’s couch.  Every night she went and sucked just a little of the king’s blood.  Now, in the bamboo wall behind the bed there lived a bedbug called Candila, who was jealous of the louse’s prosperous appearance.

One day, Candila the bedbug came down into the bed and demanded to share the king’s fat body with the louse.  As the king settled down for the night, the mere sight of his well-rounded legs made the bedbug’s mouth water.