Week 11 Story: The Grateful Elephant

Elephant carrying logs for a man. Source: Wikimedia.

source: The Kings White Elephant, from the Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

There was once a small carpenter community that lived on a river.  On the opposite side of the river bank was a large forrest where they would gather their wood from for their work.  One day, as they were working, a large old elephant came to them limping.  It appeared the elephant had a problem with its front foot because it couldn't manage to put weight on it for more than a split second before it would wince in pain.  The carpenters went up to the elephant and inspected his damaged limb.  When they got close, they saw that the elephant had a large splinter right in the center of its foot.  The carpenters immediately get to work at removing the splinter and in no time they have it removed.  They even went as far as to bandage and wash the wound so that it would heal properly.  The elephant was taken aback by the carpenters kindness because he had never met people so generous and caring for other beings besides themselves.  From that point on the old elephant made it his mission to help the carpenters wherever he could to pay them back for this great service.  He began to carry heavy logs for them, roll logs down to the river for transport, and he would even bring them their tools if they needed ones they didn't have with them.  The elephant loved the carpenters and they loved him too for the service he gave them.

The old elephant had a young son that was beautiful and white.  He decided that his son should learn to help the carpenters too.  The elephant taught his son everything about helping the carpenters and the carpenters quickly grew to love the elephants son as well.  When the old elephant died, the young elephant filled his spot for the carpenters without skipping a beat.  The young elephant would also play with the young carpenters children in the river all the time when he wasn't helping the carpenters.  One day a king came walking by the riverbank and noticed the brilliant white elephant playing with the children in the river.  He was immediately impressed and wanted to buy the elephant from the carpenters for a large sum of money.  The carpenters considered the offer, but decided to turn it down for their love for the elephant was too strong and he was almost like family to many of them.  The children were overjoyed that the elephant wasn't sold and the elephant lived happily with the carpenters until the end of his days. 

Author's note: I decided to change the end of this story to where the carpenters didn't sell the white elephant in the end.  I thought it was pretty lame for them to sell him like that after all he and the old elephant had done for them.