The Mythology & Folklore Database
A crocodile made his burrow in the embankment of a tank near a village. Afterwards the mud dried and became hard, so the crocodile was unable to get out of the hole. He was going to die.
A man passed by on his was to fetch a midwife to attend to his wife. The crocodile heard him and said, "Save me by breaking up the earth, so that I may get out." The man broke up the earth and let him out.
As there was no water left in the tank, the man placed the crocodile on his shoulder and went to the edge of the river. He then placed the crocodile into the water, but no sooner had he done so than the crocodile seized him by the arm and was about to eat him.
"Why are you going to eat me?" he asked. "Do you not know how I helped you? And still you are going to eat me!"
The crocodile said, "It is true, indeed, that you helped me. But I am going to eat you, because I am hungry."
The man said, "It is good. You may eat me, but first let as ask two or three persons as witnesses." So they went to ask the witnesses about it.
They came to a kumbuk tree, and the man said to it, "This crocodile is going to eat me. I am asking your opinion of it."
"What is it all about?"
The man said, "This crocodile was going to die. I saved him. Now he is going to eat me. Is that right?"
The kumbuk tree said, "O crocodile, do not let that man go. There is no animal so wicked as that man. He stays near a tree in its shade, then he breaks off its bark and leaves and takes them away. In the end he cuts it down and takes the whole tree."
From there he went and asked a cow, "O cow, I saved this crocodile from death. He is now going to eat me. Do you think that is right?"
The cow said, "O crocodile, do not let that man go. That man is a wicked man. He takes our milk, and in the end he kills and eats us. Do not let him go."
After that he asked a jackal about it.
The jackal asked, "What is it all about?"
He said to the jackal, "O jackal, I saved this crocodile instead of letting him die. Now he is going to eat me."
The jackal said, "I cannot give you a decision without knowing the whole story. You must show me the whole affair from the beginning."
So the man placed the crocodile on his shoulder and carried him back to his home. He put it back in its burrow and packed the soil in around him.
The jackal said, "Don't be afraid. I am on your side."
Then the man said, "Jackal, hear this case."
The jackal said, "I am both the judge and the witness. Now take up a cudgel and beat him until he is dead. I saw your excellence and his wickedness."