A herd of deer lived in a forest. Among them was a wise old teacher. He knew the ways of the deer and the dangers they faced in the forest and outside. He taught young deer how to avoid such dangers by using their senses and their minds in a clever way.
One day, the master’s sister came to him with a young fawn. “Brother,” she said, “This is my son. Could you please train him so that, like the other young deer, he too may become wise and knowledgeable?”
The teacher looked at the youngster and agreed to take him into his class. The young fawn was bright and friendly. He soon made friends with some of his classmates.
The teacher would tell them about the village near the forest and the villagers who set traps for deer and then killed them. In the beginning, the fawn attended all the classes and listened very carefully to all that his teacher said. But soon, his attention started to wander. He wanted to play with his friends. That was so much more fun than sitting and listening to the teacher talk about fields and villages, villagers and bows and arrows, traps and nets. So, he began to run away from the class with his friends and went off to play in the forest.
The teacher saw this and was very unhappy, especially because the fawn was his sister’s son. Many of the other students were learning their lessons very well, but this fawn was always playing truant. The teacher tried to tell him and scold him, but the fawn was naughty and disobedient.
The fawn was busy playing one day with his friends. They did not notice that they had reached the edge of the forest and were near the village. A villager was hiding among the trees, waiting for a deer or some suitable animal. Suddenly, he became alert watching the deer playing near by. He had set a trap earlier and he waited to see which deer would step into it.
Soon the young fawn strayed out of the forest and stepped into the trap. He struggled, but the other deer knew that none could get out of a trap. They ran swiftly back to their teacher. The villager came up to the fawn and with one stroke he killed him. Today his family would have a feast.
When the teacher told his sister, she was heart-broken. But he told her that the teacher alone cannot do anything, if the student plays truant.
