Stratagem
A cobra who eats crow-chicks is undone by a necklace and a palace panic.
Force fails where a plan can borrow other hands.
In a great tree in a king's garden, a pair of crows nested. In the hollow of the trunk a cobra lived, and he climbed when he was hungry, and the nest learned emptiness.
Hen-crowI will not hatch eggs for a snake's calendar. Let us leave this tree.
Cock-crowThe tree is ours. The snake is a problem, not a fate. I have a friend at court — a jackal who thinks in corners.
JackalDo not peck a cobra. Peck a plan. The queen bathes with gold on her throat. Steal a necklace. Drop it in the hollow. Men will come with sticks, looking for thieves. They will find a better one.
The cock-crow waited. When the queen set her jewels on the stone, he took the necklace like a bright fish and let the guards see him fly.
GuardThe bird goes to the old tree. Follow.
Gold winked in the hollow. The cobra rose to ask what light had entered his dark. The sticks did not discuss it with him.
The crows kept the tree. The nest filled again. Strategy, said the jackal later, is only knowing which hunger is larger than yours — and leading it to the right hole.
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