Once, a shepherd had taken his cattle to the forest for grazing. Suddenly, the shepherd noticed that a calf was missing from the herd. He started searching here and there for the calf. While searching, he made a vow that, if he could discover the thief who had stolen the calf, he would offer a lamb in sacrifice to the guardian deities of the forest. After a short while, he saw a lion eating the calf. The shepherd was so terrified of the lion that he said, “I vowed that I would offer a lamb as a sacrifice to the guardian deities of the forest, but now that I have discovered who the thief is, I would also add a bull to the lamb, if only my own life is spared from the lion.”
The Shepherd and the Lion
