In the beautiful forest with its dense trees, where animals live in different shapes, colors, and sizes, large numbers of huge elephants lived alongside the animals. These elephants cooperated with great love and sincerity with the other animals. In truth, they all understood the value of cooperation in work and in defending one another. Whoever needed help found all the animals behind him, helping him and standing by his side in his affliction.
One day three hunters went to the forest. There they saw the elephants wandering back and forth, and they began to imagine hunting those elephants, killing them, and obtaining their long tusks, to sell them at a high price. Elephant tusks are sold for enormous sums, and this idea made them feel that if they could hunt those elephants, they would achieve a massive fortune in a short time. But first they had to sleep and then begin their tasks the next day when they woke up, for they needed some rest due to the arduous road they had taken to reach the forest.
The three hunters did not realize that the hoopoe was standing on the tree above their heads, listening to their conversation. As soon as they finished what they were plotting, the hoopoe set off toward the king of the forest to tell him what the hunters intended toward the helpless elephants. The lion was greatly distressed and asked all the animals of the forest to come to him in his kingdom for an urgent matter.
As soon as the animals came to the emergency meeting, the lion began to speak to them about what the hoopoe had heard. He asked them to propose solutions to that crisis and to cooperate with him in an attempt to save the elephants. The animals of the forest sympathized with the elephants and tried to think of a good solution. The king of tigers shouted out and said he had a good plan. The lion asked him to present it to them. The tiger explained his plan, and it was met with approval from the assembly, so they decided to carry it out.
The next day the hunters were exhausted from their continuous work throughout the day, and they decided to sleep until the next morning. As soon as they fell asleep, the animals crept toward them. The monkeys pulled away the hunters’ guns, while the snakes coiled around their legs and arms to bind them, and all the animals of the forest surrounded them in an awe-inspiring scene. When the hunters opened their eyes and saw what had happened, they were terrified and began to tremble.
The lion, king of the forest, came and told them that they would not let them go as punishment for their attempts to kill the elephants. The hunters trembled and began to weep, and one of them said that they would never carry out that deed and would leave the forest never to return. The elephants crushed the guns with their massive legs. The lion began to consult with the rest of the animals and took their opinion about whether to punish the hunters or let them go. The animals advised him to release them on their promise never to return to the forest again. The hunters swore not to harm any animal and never to return to the forest again.