Week 2 Story: The Tiger in the Cage

Somewhere in the forest, there was tiger scavenging for food.  After hunting for some time, her mind started to wonder off, when suddenly she heard a loud clang and realized that she had walked into a trap.  The tiger scratched and clawed at the cage bars, thrusting herself against the door trying to get it open, but it was no use.  It was then that she saw a rifle perched against a tree, and knew that it was poachers who had set this trap.  She started to panic, knowing that the terrible humans would soon return to take her away and do something awful to her, like enslave her in a circus or make her into a pelt.  Then she saw a man walking by.

"You sir!" she yelled.  "Please let me out of this cage before my captors return!"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot," the man replied.  "I'm afraid if I do, you'll eat me."

She begged and pleaded with the man. "Please sir!  If you let me out, I will not eat you, and to repay you I will be your slave.  I promise!"

The man had no interest in owning a slave, but seeing the fear in the tiger's eyes, he knew in his heart he could not leave her to the poachers.  "Alright. I will let you out."

When he opened the door, the tiger pounced on him. "You are foolish!" she said.  "Just like all humans.  You have no honor, no gratitude, so I will have no gratitude for you. You will not have me as your slave, but I will have you as my dinner!"

"Please!" the man begged.  "I only wanted to set you free.  I have no interest in making you my slave. I am not like the rest.  If you spare me, I will do anything!  I promise!"

The tiger paused and thought.  She knew the man could not be telling the truth, for all men she had encountered before were dishonorable and cruel.  "Surely if I let him go, he would run for the rifle laying against the tree and try to kill me," she thought.  "I know, I'll trick him.  I'll make him promise to lock himself in the cage until I've gone and the poachers come to let him out.  And when he breaks this promise and tries to run for the rifle, I'll pounce on him and eat him."

So the tiger told the man her conditions and he agreed.  When she let him go, she was fully prepared to pounce on him if he ran, but what happened next surprised her.  He did not try to run for the rifle, but instead did exactly as she said.  He walked in the cage and shut the door, locking himself inside.

She was frozen with shock when the man said, "Are you not going to go before the poachers come back?"  She could see now that he truly was honorable and merciful, and not like the other humans she had encountered.  Knowing now that she could trust the man, the tiger decided she was going to let him out of the cage, when suddenly she heard men's voices in the distance. 

"Go, or they'll kill you," the man said, showing no concern for what the poachers might do to him when they find him.

Looking in the direction of the voices, she knew he was right, and felt great remorse.  She looked back at the man and said, "Thank you for freeing me from this cage, and keeping your promise.  For you, I am forever grateful."

The tiger turned and ran away.


Author's note:  This story is inspired by Joseph Jacob's The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal.  In my story, I decided to leave out the jackal because I wanted  it to have a more sentimental ending.  I started my story in the same way as the original, with the tiger trapped in the cage and the man letting it out just to be threatened to be eaten by the tiger. However, I added a short backstory as to how the tiger became trapped in the cage. From that point on, I went completely off book.  I wanted the man to show the tiger that he truly had a good heart, and for the tiger to learn that not all humans were cruel and ungrateful.  So in the end, even though the tiger learned this lesson a little too late, we know that her heart has been changed.

Bibliography: "The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal" from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source

Image Info: Tiger in a cage drawing by Catherine Frances Frere from the Indian fairy tale book Old Deccan Days. Source: Wikipedia