Once, there lived a gentle, kind and harmless royal elephant named Airavat. One night, a gang of robbers stopped outside the elephant-shed. They were rude and aggressive and spoke to one another in foul language. Airavat was alone in the shed. The rude talk reached his ears. At first, Airavat did not like the way the robbers spoke. However, when the robbers started stopping there every day, Airavat started enjoying the rude talks. After many such days, Airavat’s personality changed. Instead of being calm and harmless, he became aggressive and started to harm anyone who came in his way. The news reached the Raja. He also discovered that Airavat had been listening to rude and foul talks. The Raja requested some bhikshus (monks) to give gentle sermons of good virtues before Airavat. Soon, Airavat became the same old gentle and calm elephant once again.
Moral: Good company brings positivity.
