Once upon a time, early one morning before anyone was awake, Jakhals the jackal was looking for food. Jakhals was clever but lazy. He did not like to hunt himself. Instead, he waited for others to catch something so he could take it. That day, he climbed a small rocky hill to see what was happening below. In the valley, he spotted Oom Leeuw the lion with a large, fat sheep he had just killed. Jakhals’s eyes lit up. This was a perfect chance to get meat without doing any work.
Jakhals quickly made a plan. He found a piece of white paper, folded it like a letter, and ran to Oom Leeuw. He greeted the lion politely and said the letter was from Tante, his aunt. Oom Leeuw could not read but pretended he could. Jakhals “read” the letter aloud, saying Tante wanted the sheep killed and the meat delivered to her by Jakhals. Believing he was helping, Oom Leeuw gave the meat to Jakhals, and the jackal ran off happily.
Later, when Oom Leeuw returned home, he saw Tante and the lion cubs crying because there was no meat to eat. Furious, he blamed Jakhals and decided to find him the next morning to punish him.
Early the next day, Oom Leeuw climbed the hill to find Jakhals. He saw the jackal sitting on a rock with his family. Oom Leeuw tried to climb the steep cliff, but the rock was smooth. Every attempt ended with him slipping and falling. After several tries, he decided to act friendly and invited Jakhals to go hunting, hoping the jackal would come down.
Jakhals pretended to be busy cooking meat and invited Oom Leeuw to eat with him. The cliff was too steep for the lion to climb alone. Jakhals offered to pull him up, and his wife brought a thin old rope. As they tried to lift Oom Leeuw, Jakhals moved the rope over sharp rocks, making it fray and eventually snap. When Oom Leeuw was ten feet above the ground, the rope broke, and he fell hard. Jakhals pretended to be worried and offered another rope.
They tried again and again, but Jakhals always used a weak rope. Finally, Oom Leeuw gave up. To trick him further, Jakhals offered a piece of cooked meat. But it was not real meat. He wrapped a red-hot stone in fat and dropped it into Oom Leeuw’s mouth. The lion swallowed it and roared in pain as the burning stone hurt him terribly. All nearby animals ran away in fear.
Meanwhile, Jakhals and his family danced and laughed around the fire, singing about how the clever little jackal had outwitted the King of Beasts. The song praised Jakhals for being sly, smart, and brave enough to trick the lion, feed him fake meat, and stay safe while the mighty lion suffered. From that day on, Jakhals relied on his cleverness to survive, avoiding direct fights with Oom Leeuw and using his wit instead of strength.