Once upon a time there was a Raja who had an only son.  As the boy grew up his father sent him to a school to learn to read and write.  One day on his way back from school, the boy sat down by the road side to rest, and placed his school books on the ground by his side.  Suddenly a jackal came along and snatched up the bundle of books and ran away with it; and though the boy ran after it, he failed to catch the jackal and had to go and tell his father how he had lost his school books.  The Raja told him not to mind, as it was a very good omen and meant that he would grow up as clever as a jackal; and so the matter ended as far as the boy was concerned; and his father bought him a new set of books.

But the jackal ran off to the side of a tank and taking a book from the bundle sat down and began to read it aloud.  He kept on saying over and over again “Ibor, obor, iakoro sotro” “Ibor obor iakoro sotro.”

Hearing the noise a crocodile who lived in the tank poked his head out of the water and began “Well, nephew, what is that you are repeating?” “I am only reading a book, uncle.”

“What, nephew, do you know how to read and write?”

“Yes, certainly I do,” answered the jackal.

“In that case,” returned the crocodile “would you mind teaching my five children?” The jackal was quite willing to be their master, but a difficulty struck the crocodile; the jackal lived on high land, and the little crocodiles could not go so far from the water.  The jackal at once suggested a way out of the difficulty:  “Let the crocodile dig a little pool near where the jackal lived and put the children into it.  Then the jackal could take the little crocodiles out of it when he was giving them their lessons and put them back again when they had finished.”  So it was arranged, and in two or three days the crocodile dug the pool and the jackal began the lessons.

Each morning the jackal took the five little crocodiles out of the water and told them to repeat after him what he said, and then he began “Ibor obor iakoro sotro” “Ibor obor iakoro sotro.”  But try as they might the little crocodiles could not pronounce the words properly; then the jackal lost his temper and cuffed them soundly.  In spite of this they still showed no signs of improvement, till at last the jackal made up his mind that he could not go on with such unsatisfactory pupils, and that the best thing he could do would be to eat them up one at a time.  So the next morning he addressed the little crocodiles, “I see that you can’t learn, when I take you in class all together:  in future I will have you up one at a time and teach you like that.”  So he took one out of the water and began to teach it; but the little crocodile could not pronounce its words properly, so in a very short time the jackal got angry and gobbled it up.  The next day he took out another, which soon met the same fate as its brother; and so things went on till the jackal had eaten four out of the five.