Story of the foolish teacher, the foolish pupils, and the cat.
In Ujjayiní there lived in a convent a foolish teacher. And he could not sleep, because mice troubled him at night. And wearied with this infliction, he told the whole story to a friend. The friend, who was a Bráhman, said to that teacher, “You must set up a cat, it will eat the mice.” The teacher said, “What sort of creature is a cat? Where can one be found? I never came across one.” When the teacher said this, the friend replied, “Its eyes are like glass, its colour is a brownish grey, it has a hairy skin on its back, and it wanders about in roads. So, my friend, you must quickly discover a cat by these signs and have one brought.” After his friend had said this, he went home. Then that foolish teacher said to his pupils, “You have been present and heard all the distinguishing marks of a cat. So look about for a cat, such as you have heard described, in the roads here.” Accordingly the pupils went and searched hither and thither, but they did not find a cat anywhere.
Then at last they saw a Bráhman boy coming from the opening of a road, his eyes were like glass, his colour brownish grey, and he wore on his back a hairy antelope-skin. And when they saw him they said, “Here we have got the cat according to the description.” So they seized him, and took him to their teacher. Their teacher also observed that he had got the characteristics mentioned by his friend; so he placed him in the convent at night. And the silly boy himself believed that he was a cat, when he heard the description that those fools gave of the animal. Now it happened that the silly boy was a pupil of that Bráhman, who out of friendship gave that teacher the description of the cat. And that Bráhman came in the morning, and, seeing the boy in the convent, said to those fools, “Who brought this fellow here?” The teacher and his foolish pupils answered, “We brought him here as a cat, according to the description which we heard from you.” Then the Bráhman laughed and said, “There is considerable difference between a stupid human being, and a cat, which is an animal with four feet and a tail.” When the foolish fellows heard this, they let the boy go and said, “So let us go and search again for a cat such as has been now described to us.” And the people laughed at those fools.
“Ignorance makes every one ridiculous. You have heard of the fools and their cat, now hear the story of another set of fools.”