The Brahmin and the Crooks Story In English For Kids

The brahmin and the crooks short story is one of the funny stories coming from the Panchatantra fables. The story shows that all the studies and big titles in the world are a waste if you lack common sense. This funny narration of telling children how some common crooks can fool a learned brahmin will surely entertain the kids as well as help them understand some practical sides of life.

The story is also a look into some of the customs and traditions followed in ancient Indian times where brahmin would perform rituals at rich people's places and earn something as a gift or reward for their services. Even in modern India, many ceremonies are presided by brahmins as it is believed to bring prosperity to the house.

Here you will get a short summary of this story along with the morals that you can derive from the story. You will also find answers to some of the frequently asked questions at the end of the article.

The Origin of Brahmin and the Crook Story

Panchatantra (also written as Pancha-tantra) is one of the most ancient fables of India which has many folk tales and other stories from more than 1500 BCE. This book of magic tales and animal fables was compiled in the third and fifth AD. The book was originally written in Sanskrit and later translated into fifty different languages across the globe.

Johannes Hertel (1872-1955) was a German Sanskrit scholar, and he believed that the original Panchatantra collection was compiled in 200 BCE in Kashmir. The primary purpose of the eighty-seven stories in Panchatantra was to educate the sons of royalty. The name of the original composer could not be established with certainty by Vishnay Sharma (a scholar in the court of king Amarshakti of Mahilaropya) is believed to be the author of this book which has five chapters or treatises.

The Brahmin and the Crooks Story Summary

A brahmin named Mitra Sharma lived in a small village, and one day he performed rituals for a rich farmer who gave him a goat as a gift. When he was returning to his village, carrying the goat on his back, three crooks spotted him. The crooks were starving and wanted to cook the goat as their meal, so they hatched the plan to take away the goat from the brahmin.

The plan was to scare the brahmin so that he left the goat and ran away. To do this, one of the crooks met the brahmin on the way and asked why a pious person like the brahmin was carrying a dog. The brahmin gets indignant and carried forward with the goat. The second crook then asked the brahmin why he had a dead calf on his shoulders, and the brahmin lost his temper again and walked away.

But now the brahmin was puzzled, and a seed of doubt had crept in his mind. Lastly, the third rogue met the brahmin and he named the goat a pig and asked why a sacred priest was carrying a profane pig. This made the brahmin very anxious as by now he started wondering if the animal was actually a monster who changed shapes from time to time. He was extremely frightened and left the goat on the road to run away to his home.

The crooks then came together and carried the goat, laughing at the stupidity of the so-called highly educated brahmin. Thereafter they happily feasted on the goat.

The Brahmin Carrying the Goat

The Brahmin and the Crooks Moral

The story conveys the message that acquiring bookish knowledge is not sufficient but one should also have common sense. The story also tries to tell us that some beliefs of our caste system can sometimes be easily used against us; since the crooks tried to play with the "sacred" image of brahmins and the not-so-sacred pigs and dogs to make the brahmin get rid of the goat.

Note to Parents

While reading this quirky story with their kids, parents can also tell children about the caste system prevalent in ancient India and how it was abolished later. It is essential to retain the fun part of the story when parents talk to their kids about it. Though the story mainly teaches us about how to utilize common sense rather than gather just bookish knowledge, parents must also teach another valuable lesson that is hidden in this story which is not letting fear of the unknown force us to act in a way that can end in our loss.