The Talkative Tortoise

In a lake among the green hills of India, there once lived a tortoise called Kambugriva.

He was a kind tortoise and a clever one. But he had one little problem. He loved to talk. He talked at breakfast and he talked at bedtime. He talked to the fish, he talked to the frogs, and when there was nobody else, he talked to the water lilies.

His two best friends were a pair of geese called Sankata and Vikata. They came to the lake every year, and they never minded his chatter. They just laughed and said, "Oh, Kambugriva!"

The year without rain

Then came a year when the rain did not come.

The sun shone down, day after day. The lake grew smaller and smaller. The water lilies drooped. The frogs hopped away to find somewhere wetter. Soon the lake was only a muddy puddle, cracked at the edges.

"We must leave," said Sankata one evening. "We know a big lake, far away beyond the hills. It is full of cool, clear water, even now."

"But what about our friend?" said Vikata. "Tortoises can't fly."

Kambugriva looked at the cracked mud, and for once he had nothing to say.

A stick and a plan

The next morning, the geese came back with a long, strong stick.

"We have a plan," said Vikata. "We will each hold one end of this stick in our beaks. You will hold the middle in your mouth. Then we will fly, and carry you with us."

"Wonderful!" said Kambugriva. "What a clever idea! You two are the best friends a tortoise could ever have, and I have always said so, and I will say it to everyone at the new lake, and..."

"There is just one rule," said Sankata gently. "Whatever happens, whatever you see, whatever anyone says, you must not open your mouth. Not even once. Not until we land."

"Of course," said Kambugriva. "Easy. I won't say a single word."

The geese looked at each other.

Up, up and away

Kambugriva bit hard on the middle of the stick. The geese took the ends in their beaks. They flapped their great white wings, and up they rose, higher and higher, until the dried-up lake was just a small brown spot below.

It was wonderful. The wind whistled past. The hills rolled by like green waves. Kambugriva had never seen the world from so high. He wanted to say, Look at that river! Look at those clouds! But he kept his mouth shut tight.

After a while they flew over a village. The children playing in the lanes looked up and saw a very strange sight.

"Look!" they shouted. "Two geese are carrying a tortoise on a stick!"

The grown-ups came running out of their houses. Soon the whole village was pointing and laughing.

"What a silly tortoise!" someone called. "Who ever heard of a tortoise flying?"

Kambugriva's face grew hot. Silly? he thought. I'm not silly. It was a very good plan, and if they knew how clever it was, they wouldn't laugh.

"Don't listen," whispered the geese, through their beaks.

But Kambugriva could not bear it. He had to answer. He opened his mouth to say, "Mind your own business!"

He only got as far as "Mind..."

A soft landing

Down he went, tumbling over and over, away from the stick.

Luckily for him, right at the edge of the village there was a soft, muddy pond. Kambugriva landed in it with a great big SPLOSH!, and sank up to his nose in the cool mud.

He was not hurt. But he was very muddy, and very far from the new lake.

The geese flew down and landed beside him.

"Oh, Kambugriva," said Vikata, and for once she did not laugh.

It took the tortoise the whole summer to walk the rest of the way, one slow step at a time. The geese flew ahead and waited for him each evening. And on that long, long walk, Kambugriva had plenty of time to think.

When he finally reached the new lake, his friends asked him what he had learned.

Kambugriva smiled. And for a long moment, he said nothing at all.

About this tale

This story comes from the Panchatantra, a collection of animal fables from ancient India, and it is also told in the Buddhist Jataka tales. In the oldest versions, the fall ends far worse for the tortoise. We have given him a softer landing in this gentle telling. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.