Fables from the Banyan Tree: Timeless Tales of Wisdom from Ancient India

Gather beneath the banyan tree for stories that have charmed the world for two thousand years.

Long ago in India, a wise teacher was asked to make three idle princes wise. He did it with stories, and they are among the oldest in the world. A lion king and a gentle bull are driven apart by a whispering jackal. A tortoise cannot keep his mouth shut. A little hare outwits a mighty lion. A jackal dyed blue makes himself king of the forest, until the night he forgets himself and howls.

Here are 34 of these timeless tales, retold in the clear, gentle style of Aesop. Each one takes only a few minutes to read and ends with a lesson worth remembering.