“Once in a forest, a hunter, on being chased by a tiger, felt tired and climbed up a tree. There was a bear sitting on the top of the tree. The tiger was waiting under the tree as it could not climb up. It was very hungry, so it wanted to gobble up the hunter. It requested the bear to push the hunter down, so that it could kill him and appease its hunger. The bear refused to do so, saying that the hunter was its
guest and it was its moral duty to extend hospitality to guests. But, the tiger continued to wait under the tree.
After some time, the bear started to doze. Noticing this, the tiger addressed the hunter, “O
man, I am very hungry. It does not matter whether I eat you or the bear. I will go back once my hunger is satiated. The bear is dozing. So, push it down without delay. I will eat it and spare you.” The man did not have the morality of even the bear. He thought he could escape from the clutches of the tiger by offering the bear as bait. So, he committed the ungrateful act of pushing the bear down. As luck would have it, the bear, as it was falling, caught hold of a branch, climbed up and saved itself from the tiger.

Then the tiger said, “O bear, you should never believe the human beings. This hunter tried to harm you, though you were kind enough to give him shelter and protect him. So, without further delay, push the ungrateful wretch down, I shall devour him”.

But the bear said, “I have done my duty. Each one has to face the consequences of his own actions. I will not harm him just because he tried to harm me.”

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Points to Ponder:

Animals attack, kill or eat only when hungry. Tiger has no specific preference for the meat of man or bear. (can we claim to be so ? How addicted we are to taste, over health & well-being?) No wonder, moneys have a problem to our claim, ‘we evolved from them’, as they see no evolution ????
Do we really treat guest as per ‘Athithi Devo Bhava’ ( guest is like God) ?
Can we think of situations when we deviated from morality, used bait and was ungrategul… all by choice ? Not just at work, but also outside…
How trustworthy are we, human beings… crown of all creations ?
Can we resist our tendency to ‘give it back’ to anyone who harm us ? Can we just stick to our duty and leave the consequences our of our area of focus ? Whether we believe in Doctrine or Karma/Newton’s 3rd Law, or not ?