A Brahmaṇ once had a pet mongoose. A mongoose is a large predatory mammal that kills rodents and snakes. The Brahmaṇ took good care of his mongoose and treated it like a child. The Brahmaṇ and his wife had a little baby boy. One day, when the baby was sleeping in a cradle, the mother had to go out to get grocery. While she was out, a messenger came to their house from the palace of the king. He said that the king wanted to meet the Brahmaṇ immediately. The Brahmaṇ got worried. He did not want to leave his little baby boy alone. But then, he thought that he can leave the mongoose to guard the boy. So, he went with the messenger to the palace to see the king.
While both the Brahmaṇ and his wife were out, a snake started crawling towards the cradle. The mongoose saw the snake. It thought that the snake might bite and kill the baby. So the mongoose attacked the snake and killed it. When the Brahmaṇ returned home, the mongoose rushed to him. The Brahman saw that there was blood on the mouth of the mongoose.
The Brahmaṇ did not have patience. He thought that the mongoose had killed the baby boy. So he got very angry. The Brahmaṇ picked a stick, and started beating the mongoose till it died. Then, he rushed inside to check on his baby boy. To his surprise, the Brahmaṇ saw that the baby boy was completely fine. In fact, a dead snake lay below the cradle. Now the Brahmaṇ understood what had happened. When the mongoose saw the snake coming towards the cradle, it attacked the snake and killed it. The Brahmaṇ now felt very sorry for what he had had done. He said, “If only I had patience and not got angry, I would have found out that my dear pet mongoose had not killed the snake.” But it was too late now. The Brahmaṇ had lost his pet forever.
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