The cobra’s arrogance

The moral of the story is “Arrogance and price go before a fall.”  There is a short story behind this moral. 

Once upon a time there lived a king cobra.  This cobra had a voracious appetite and fed on frogs, lizards, snails, mice and even rabbits.  As he grew bigger he became bolder and began to eat other snakes.  All the creatures of the forest began to dread his presence.

Now this puffed up his pride and he began to think of himself as the king of the forest.  But unfortunately his home was only a small hole in the ground.

“A king like me cannot live in such a miserable hole,” he said to himself.  “I must find a dwelling that is in keeping with my royal status.”

And so he went off in search of a new home.  After searching for many hours he came upon a tree with a hollow around roots.

“Ah! This will do for me,” he said.  But as he looked around he saw an anthill very close to this new home.

“This ugly anthill spoils the appearance of my new royal home,” he growled to himself and slithering up to the anthill ordered the ants to go away.  But there was no reply.

He became furious and struck at the anthill.  Suddenly the place began to swarm with ants as the tiny creatures emerged in their thousands from the anthill.  Soon they were swarming all over the cobra and fermenting him with thousands of bites.

The cobra could not bear the pain.  So he fled leaving his new home behind and away into the neighboring forest.

The moral of the story is “Arrogance and price go before a fall.”