Aesop’s fables:

The unintelligent leader

Retold by Panchamee Hewavissenti

When the king of the jungle died there was a controversy as to who should be chosen to be the leader. Each and everyone in the jungle had to demonstrate their abilities and skills before the audience.

Monkey had the knack of impressing others by its attractive dance. Therefore it was unanimously chosen as the leader of the jungle. But fox was not impressed with that decision and tried to prove that the decision others made was not accurate so the fox in the aim of refuting it made a snare with a piece of meat in it and addressed the monkey.

“My dear friend king, You have become the king of this jungle and I am very proud of that. I found a delicious piece of meat but without eating it I left it specially for you out of respect for you. So you may partake it my dear king. I kept it over there.”

The fox cunningly directed the monkey towards the snare.

The foolish monkey, who became the king of the jungle out of greediness at once accepted fox’s bid , rushed towards it and incurred in the snare. Out of shame and wrath for the rebuff he got, the monkey accused the fox of trapping him.

The fox replied with a leery askance and said “ You, funny chap, thought of becoming the king of all animals. You think that you can hold such a responsible position as a king without having an iota of intelligence.”

Moral of the story

If someone needs to be a leader he should be an all rounder with vast spectrum of knowledge, dexterity, innate instinct, intelligence, Savua Faire and all qualities of leadership.

If one devoid of leadership qualities tries to become a leader will at last become a laughing shock to the followers and they will have no faith in the leader.