Tenali Raman and the King's Cats

The palace of the Emperor Krishnadevaraya had a problem. Mice. They were everywhere, nibbling the royal robes, scampering across the royal floors, helping themselves to the royal kitchens.

“Cats,” declared the Emperor. “We need cats.” And being an emperor who liked to do things grandly, he made a royal order. Every single household in the city was to keep a cat to chase away the mice. And so that no cat would ever go hungry, the palace would give every household a cup of fresh milk each day, just for the cat.

The people were delighted. Free milk, every single day! And so they took very, very good care of their cats. They fed them the lovely warm milk morning and night, and the cats grew round, and sleek, and gloriously lazy. So lazy, in fact, that they could not be bothered to chase a single mouse. Why work for your dinner when dinner arrives in a cup?

And so, before long, the mice came merrily back, fatter and bolder than ever.

The Emperor was baffled. Every house had a cat, and yet the mice had returned. He sent his men to check, and they reported that in every house in the city the cat was plump and content, lapping up its milk. In every house but one. The house of Tenali Raman. There the cat was lean and quick and bright-eyed, and it turned its nose right up at the bowl of milk it was offered. And there, alone in all the city, not one mouse was to be found.

The Emperor sent for Tenali. “Explain this,” he said. “Why is your cat the only one in my whole kingdom still doing its work?”

Tenali bowed, with a twinkle in his eye. “Your Majesty, on the very first day, I gave my cat a saucer of milk so hot it singed its little tongue. From that day on, my cat has wanted nothing to do with milk. So it does the only thing left to a hungry cat. It catches mice.”

The Emperor stared, and then he began to laugh. “So all my free milk,” he said, “did not get rid of the mice. It only got rid of the cats’ good sense.”

“A creature given everything for nothing,” said Tenali gently, “soon forgets how to do anything at all.”

And the Emperor, still chuckling, called off his grand order, and left the cats of the city to earn their own suppers once again.