The Jackal and the Crocodile

The Jackal and the Crocodile

One day Jackal ran merrily along the bank of a wide river. The day was warm, the water sparkled in the sun, and from the opposite bank came the sweet scent of ripe wild plums.

Jackal stopped and narrowed his eyes.

“What a tree!” he whispered. “And how much fruit it has… If only I could get there!”

But the river was deep, and Jackal could not swim. He walked back and forth along the bank, looked for a shallow place, and studied the stones, but there was nowhere to cross.

Just then Crocodile was swimming downstream. She held her head high above the water and cut through the waves with her powerful tail.

Jackal brightened at once.

“Good morning!” he called in his sweetest voice. “What a beautiful river today! And how easily you swim! No one in the world moves on the water as confidently as you do.”

Crocodile slowed down. She liked the praise.

“Good morning, Jackal. And where are you looking so carefully?”

“Over there,” he said, pointing his nose toward the plum tree. “I thought how pleasant it would be for the two of us to sit beneath it and enjoy the fruit. It is a pity that I cannot swim.”

Crocodile was quiet for a moment, then said, “If you truly wish it, I can carry you across.”

“Oh, how kind you are!” cried Jackal. “I will never forget it!”

He carefully climbed onto her back, and Crocodile swam across the river. Water splashed against her sides, birds flew overhead, and Jackal sat dry and pleased.

When they reached the other bank, Jackal leaped down and raced to the tree. The plums were just as he had imagined: soft, juicy, and sweet.

“One… another… and just one more,” he murmured as he ate.

Crocodile waited patiently by the water.

At last Jackal had eaten his fill and returned.

“Well,” he said, “now I must go back.”

Crocodile carried him over the river once again. The moment Jackal’s paws touched the bank, he sprang onto the dry ground, thanked her, and ran away.

“Will you come back?” called Crocodile.

“One day, certainly!” he tossed over his shoulder.

One day passed, then two, then three. Crocodile waited, but Jackal did not come. Then she understood: he had spoken beautifully only because he wanted to reach the plums.

“What a trickster,” she muttered angrily. “Next time I will not believe him so easily.”

She knew the place where Jackal came every day to drink. There the roots of a great tree stretched down into the river. Crocodile hid beneath them and lay still.

Soon Jackal appeared. He bent toward the water to drink and suddenly felt someone seize his paw firmly.

Jackal guessed at once who it was.

But instead of crying out, he laughed loudly.

“Oh, Crocodile! Have you decided to catch me? You are mistaken. You are holding not my paw but an old root. My paw is right here beside you!”

Crocodile thought, “What if it truly is a root?”

For a moment she loosened her jaws to seize the “real paw.”

That was all Jackal needed. He sprang from the water and ran farther away.

“You must look more carefully at what you catch!” he called.

Crocodile slapped the water angrily with her tail.

The next day she decided to try another way. She climbed onto the bank, found Jackal’s den, and quietly crawled inside.

“Now he certainly will not notice me,” she thought.

But Jackal was clever and observant. When he came to his den, he saw a broad trail in the sand leading inside.

He stopped.

“How strange,” he said aloud, as though speaking to himself. “Usually, when I come home, my den always greets me. Today it is silent.”

Inside, Crocodile grew alert.

“Does a den really have to answer?” she wondered.

Jackal called, “Den, den! Why do you not say today, ‘Welcome home, Jackal’?”

Crocodile decided she must make things seem normal and answered from the darkness in a low voice, “Welcome home, Jackal!”

Jackal nearly laughed.

“Now everything is clear,” he said. “My den has never spoken before.”

And instead of going inside, he calmly walked away.

Crocodile understood that she had given herself away again.

Later Jackal returned to the river, but kept well back from the water. Crocodile watched him from the middle of the current.

“You are very clever, Jackal,” she said. “But it would be better still if you did not deceive those who help you.”

For a moment Jackal was silent. He wanted to make a joke, but this time he found no witty answer.

For it is one thing to save yourself through quick thinking, and quite another to use someone else’s trust.

From then on, whenever Jackal saw ripe plums on the far bank, he remembered both the sweet fruit and the cold water—and Crocodile, whom he had tricked twice.

And Crocodile no longer hurried to believe beautiful words. First she watched what people did, and only then decided whom she could trust.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨