A group of men had been on the road in India for days without food or water. Unfamiliar with the terrain they were covering and unable to feed themselves, they became desperately undernourished. Nevertheless, they continued on their journey, famished and distraught but determined to reach their final destination.
In a twist of luck, a learned man who had traveled in that area many times before and was familiar with the wildlife of the region happened to cross their path. Looking at the condition of their clothing and their pale faces, he quickly concluded that they were hungry strangers and felt compelled to warn them about the elephants that roamed the land.
“Greetings my good men, I can see that you're tired and hungry, for there's not much prey in these parts,” he commiserated. “But beware that elephants roam freely in this area, and their young, who are plump, sometimes get separated from their mothers and are then easily caught. You must never, ever try to hunt an elephant calf, though, for his mother will find you no matter how many miles you may think you've traveled from where you caught the calf. She will sniff out her child's scent on you, and she'll trample you to death the moment she catches up. Mark my words and stick to eating herbs and fruits, if you find them!”
The exhausted men listened to the wise man's words, thanked him for his advice, and continued on their journey. Desperately hungry, they looked under every shrub and up every tree that might bear fruit, but they found nothing edible. Suddenly, one of the men spotted an elephant calf who had been separated from his clan. Without hesitation, the men, except for one who heeded the wise man's advice, attacked the young beast and, facing minimal resistance, killed him on the spot.
Too famished to listen to the learned man's warnings, the men quickly started a fire and cooked the plump animal, feasting on his flesh. Having satisifed their hunger at last, they washed their hands and faces in a stream nearby and promptly fell asleep on the banks. The conscientious man who had not participated in the slaughter or touched a morsel of the flesh decided to stay awake and guard their camp, instinctively feeling that the wise man had not warned them without good reason.
Meanwhile, the mother elephant had been searching everywhere for her young one, growing more furious and exasperated by the minute. Sniffing everything with her long, sturdy trunk, she eventually detected her offspring's scent in the near distance and quickened her step. In a wink of an eye, she was upon the felons' camp. She approached the one man who was awake and sniffed him from head to toe, especially around his mouth, to see if she could detect the scent of her baby. The man was immobile, tongue-tied with fright. She circled him three times to make sure she had not made a mistake and then passed him by without harming him, quickly going to the other men sleeping a little farther away.
She sniffed the first man's mouth and immediately smelled her baby, then crushed him under her forelegs, the size of stone pillars, and threw him up in the air with her mighty trunk, breaking virtually every bone in his body. Then she approached the others who had feasted on her child, and, one by one, subjected them to the same excruciating treatment without showing the least sign of remorse.
When the last guilty man had been slaughtered, the mother elephant returned to the man who had refrained from eating her offspring. She graciously knelt down before him and in one quick swoop lifted him with her trunk onto her back and gallantly carried him to his final destination.