Once, the king gifted Tenali five elephants.
When he took them home, the wife was angry because they were poor and had a large family to feed.
Tenali knew she was right but could do nothing since they were a royal gift. So he took them to Kali temple and got her seal on their foreheads. He let the elephants be on their own. But often they came back hungry.
When the king got to know about the poor state of the elephants, he was angry and asked Tenali for an explanation.
Tenali said that he was poor and could not have fed the elephants as he could not say ‘no’ to the royal gift. Had the king given him five cows instead, things would have been better. The king understood his fault and gave Tenali five cows instead and took back the elephants.
