One morning a villager stepped out of his hut and saw huge, round footmarks in the mud outside his dwelling. Soon there was a large crowd outside his hut. They followed the tracks and found that they ran all through the village to the other side. “Let us not panic,” advised a villager. “There might be a simple explanation for all this. Let’s call Tenali Raman. He has helped us so many times in the past.”
So Tenali Raman who lived in a neighbouring village, was sent for and he came without fuss. He bent over the prints and studied them from every angle. “Some of us think they were made by a d-demon,” said the headman, hesitatingly. “You people have such fertile imaginations,” said Tenali Raman, giving him a withering look. “No, these tracks were not made by a demon or monster. They were made by a deer.” “A deer!” exclaimed the headman. “But they’re so big!” “That’s because,” explained Tenali Raman patiently, “The animal tied large stones to its feet to fool us.” The villagers felt relieved a lot.
Some nights later, the animal who had made the tracks, a large elephant, came that way again. The villagers saw the tracks the next morning but this time they were not afraid. They knew the deer was trying to fool them again.
