There lived a white louse named Mandarisarpini in the spacious bedroom of a mighty king. It used to live in the corner of the bedsheet spread over the King’s beautiful bedstead. Everyday, when the king was fast asleep, the louse sucked his blood and crept back again into a corner of the bed-cover to hide itself.
One night, a bed-bug named Agnimukha strolled into the bedroom of the king. The louse saw it and told it to get out. But the bed-bug said, ‘‘Look, you ought to be a little courteous to your guests.’’ The louse got carried away by the bed-bug’s sweet talk. She said, ‘‘You can stay here tonight. But, you will not bite the king to suck his blood.’’
‘‘But I’m your guest. I need to eat. Give me something.’’ The bed-bug asked, ‘‘What better food can you serve me than the king’s blood?’’
‘‘Well!’’ replied the louse. ‘‘You can suck the king’s blood silently. He must not get hurt in anyway.’’
When the night fell, the king entered his bedroom and slept on the bed.
The greedy bed-bug forgot all about its promises and bit the sleeping king hard to suck his blood. ‘It’s royal blood’, thought the bed-bug royally pleased and continued sucking till the king felt a terrible itching in his skin. The king woke up and ordered his servants to find the bed-bug and kill it.
But the bed-bug hid itself into a joint of the bed-stead and thus escaped the detection. The servants of the king, instead, found the louse on the bedsheet. They caught it and squished.
Moral—Never trust the strangers.
