He could feel all sorts of sensations and he was sure it was the fish.
Dangbo..o..o Dingbo..o..o.. in a dense forest, somewhere in the rugged Bhutanese mountains, there was a leopard. He had been grievously humiliated by a fox who had played a nasty trick on him. He swore that he would catch the fox and kill him. He traveled all over the forest looking for the fox. One day he saw the fox sitting on the bank of a lake completely preoccupied with something. The leopard at once went towards him. As soon as the fox saw him coming, he gestured to him to be quiet. This made the leopard even more angry and he shouted, “You nasty fox, you think you can trick me again? This time I am going to kill you.”
At this the fox pretended to be very surprised and said as calmly as possible, “Tell me, what is your problem? Maybe I can help you.”
“That nasty trick that you played on me has made me the laughing stock of the entire forest.”
“Which forest?” asked the fox.
“The forest behind the hill,” replied the leopard.
“I knew it” said the fox, “there had to be a mistake. I never go beyond the shores of the lake. I belong to the clan of the peaceful fishing fox. We fish for our food and can only live where there is water and fish.”
The leopard’s curiosity was at once roused. “How do you fish?” he asked.
“It’s quite simple. I just have to sit with my tail dipped in the lake and the fish hang onto it. Then I pull out my tail and there is always more fish than I can eat.”
“Please let me try,” said the leopard.
“Oh, no, this is our means of living, so I cannot let you do it.”
“Please, please, just once,” begged the foolish leopard.
“All right, just this once. Now you must sit very still with your tail dipped in the water and you must pull it out only when the first rays of the morning sun touch the tops of the trees.” So saying the fox sprinted off and disappeared into the forest.
It was winter time, and the lake froze in the night. Sitting in the bright moonlight night watching the sparkling stars, the leopard thrilled at the idea of all the fish attaching themselves to his tail. He could feel all sorts of sensations and he was sure it was the fish. As the first rays of the sun touched the tops of the trees in the forest he tried to pull out his tail but it was frozen fast and he had to struggle and pull vigorously for a long time. Finally he could free himself but the skin from his tail remained frozen in the lake. He howled in pain. Now he was even more determined to catch up with the fox and kill him.
After several days of searching, he spied the fox sitting crouched on his hind legs, holding a drum stick between his paws and chanting strange words and hitting the ground with the drum stick. The leopard jumped upon him and seized him, shouting, “You trickster, look what you have done to me. I am going to kill you!”
Feigning complete innocence the fox said, “I do not know what you are talking about. Before you kill me at least tell me what happened.”
The leopard explained in great detail how the fox had tricked him the first time and made him the laughing stock of the entire forest and how the fox had again tricked him and made him lose the skin off his tail. On hearing this the fox clicked his tongue and shook his head in sympathy and said, “I wish I had met you before, I could have warned you. Those foxes living on the banks of that lake happen to be my distant cousins and they are known for their trickery. I am so ashamed of them. Please allow me to tell you how sorry I am for your misfortunes.”
The silly leopard at once believed the fox and asked him what he was doing. Of course, the fox was just waiting for the leopard to ask him that question. The fox laid down his drum sticks and looking at them fondly, he said, “I am a drum fox. I live by drumming. I hit the ground and when I have drummed it enough and chanted all the right words, delicious honey just pours out of the ground. I do not eat anything but honey so I do not go anywhere beyond this area.”
Once again the leopard became very curious and asked, “Do you think I could try some of the honey?”
“Of course you can try, but at the moment I don’t have any. In fact if you had not stopped to talk with me, I was just ready to get some.”
“Please let me try. What should I do?”
The cunning fox looked around, saying, “As you will be tasting the honey only once in your lifetime let me find the best spot for you.”
Having said this he put his ear to the ground and listened to the steady buzz of bees in an underground hive. Then he taught the leopard some nonsensical words and asked him to hit on the ground with the drum sticks as hard as he could. The leopard took the drum sticks and chanting the nonsensical words he began to hit the ground with great enthusiasm. By this time the cunning fox had quietly walked off without even so much as a backward glance.
It was not long before the ground broke open and the angry swarm of frenzied bees came bursting out, with great ferocity and stung the leopard mercilessly. He shrieked and waved his paws and jumped on his hind legs but the thoroughly infuriated bees would not leave him till they were satisfied.
The leopard was very sore and covered with lumps and bumps. Now he was very bitter and he swore that he would not let the fox get away this time. He wandered around the forest for days until he caught up with the fox once again. The fox was sitting in a yuva, a large storage container woven out of bamboo, on the edge of a cliff and rocking gently and singing to himself. The leopard jumped upon him with his most classic roar and said, “If I don’t kill you who will I kill? You wicked fox, you tricked me three times. Now there is no way of letting you go.”
But the fox replied, “I think you and I have suffered the same fate. I too have been so badly mistreated by my family and relatives that I have come to live by myself away from them all and I am quite content to look at the whole world from this basket. This basket is wonderful. From it, I can not only see the whole world but I feel neither hunger nor thirst.”
The leopard had not learnt his lesson and on hearing this his resolve to kill the fox vanished and he begged to go into the basket. The fox agreed after much pleading on the part of the leopard.
“You must stay only for a very short time, please,” said the fox as he reluctantly got out of the basket. The leopard was so eager that he jumped in. No sooner had he jumped in than the fox pushed the basket over the cliff and that was the end of the silly leopard.