The Jackal, on the following day having gone [there] and come back, says to the Deer, “Nothing having been done [to me] there, let us very two go to-morrow.” This Jackal says thus with the intention that having killed the Deer he may eat the flesh.
The Deer, trusting the word of the Jackal, went. Having gone, when he looked there is a paddy field. Having seen it and eaten the paddy (growing rice) that day, he came back. On the following day, too, the Jackal said, “Let us go.” And because the Deer could not break the Jackal’s word, on that day, also, he went.
That day, the man whose field it is, the owner of the field, having come, when he looked saw that deer had eaten it; and having come home, and gone back taking a noose which was twisted from hides, he set it at the gap [in the fence] through which the Deer came.
Thereupon, in order to eat the paddy the Jackal and Deer came to the field. While they were coming [through the fence] the Deer was caught in the noose which had been set. Then the Deer says, “Friend, to-day having come they will kill me. Because of it bite this noose,” he said.
Thereupon the Jackal says, “I cannot. This is Sunday;[4] how shall I bite hides to-day?” Having said this, the Jackal got hid and waited.
The Crow, also, having seen that the Deer does not come for a long time, the Crow also came to seek the Deer. Having come, when he looked he saw that the Deer had been caught in the noose, and asked, “Friend, what is [the reason of] it?”
And the Deer says, “This indeed is the Jackal’s contrivance. To-day how shall I get free?” he asked the Crow.
The Crow says, “I will tell you a stratagem. At the time when the rice-field owner is coming I will peck at your eye [as though you were dead]. I will caw at a [certain] time. At that time spring up and run away,” he said.
Thereupon the rice-field owner came, taking a cudgel. Having come, when he looked he saw that the Deer, having been caught in the noose, is dead. Then he began the folding up of the noose. When the Crow was cawing the Deer sprang up and ran away.
Having seen the running Deer and thrown the cudgel that was in his hand, [it struck the Jackal, and] at the blow which was struck the Jackal died.