On the banks of the river Godavari, stood a huge silk-cotton tree. At night, birds from the surrounding areas used to come to this tree and rest on it.One day at dawn, when the moon was setting behind the western mountains, a crow woke up and saw a hunter coming towards the tree. He looked like Yama, the God of Death. When the crow saw him, he was frantic and thought to himself, "He looks grim. I don't like the look of himat all."He started following the hunter. After some time, the hunter stopped and looked around. He pulled out some grains of rice from his bag, scattered them on the ground and then spread out his net over the grains. After he was done, he hid behind a tree.The king of doves, with his courtiers was flying around in search of food, at that time. He saw the grains of rice and said to his followers, "How strange! Grains of rice in an uninhabited forest? Let's see what this is all about. I can smell a rat!" But the doves were greedy. They didn't listen to their king and flew down to pick up the grains of rice. Whoops! In a trice, they were all caught in the net.A terrific commotion broke out amongst the trapped doves. Then the king cried out, "Friends, we are in great danger. Unless we pull ourselves together immediately and think of a way to get out, there's no doubt that we shall all be dead. Now I propose that we all catch hold of the net at the same time and fly upwards together."The birds agreed. They caught hold of the net and flew away together with it.When the hunter saw this, he was spellbound and didn't know what to do. But he soon came to himself and began to run after them. He thought, "These birds have managed to escape because they are united. But when they come down, I'll have them in my power!"The doves however, flew very fast and were soon out of sight. Then they asked their king, "What shall we do now?" "I have a very dear friend," he said, "a mouse who lives on the banks of the river Godavari. We'll go to him. I know he will find a way to free us!"So, they all flew to the place where the mouse lived. When the mouse saw the birds flying down towards him, he got frightened and ran inside his hole at the roots of a tree.But the king of the doves called out, "My friend! Don't you know me? Come and set us free."When the mouse heard this, he recognized his friend's voice and came out quickly. The king of the doves told him all that had happened to the other doves.The mouse immediately started nibbling at the strings of the net and set the birds free.The crow, who had flown along with the trapped birds and had been watching all that happened from a nearby tree, was full of admiration for their friendship and said to himself, "Well, what they say is true after all - `A friend in need is a friend indeed'." -translated by G L Chandiramani
