The Debt of Gratitude: Rooma and Zooma

Rooma, the African lion, was resting under an umbrella tree when a zebra colt came running and took shelter behind the trunk. A leopard, which had been chasing the colt, braked hard upon seeing the sleeping king. Realizing that he might become a prey himself, the leopard gave up his pursuit and simply melted into thin air.

The trembling zebra colt stood there, petrified. "Oh God, I jumped from the frying pan into a raging fire!" he thought.

To his surprise, the lion woke up and said in a soft voice, "Don’t be afraid, young zebra. I am not going to harm you. I’m not hungry; I just had a full meal. We kill only when we are hungry, not out of enmity. You have my permission to go and join your mother, who must be very worried about your fate."

Zooma was overwhelmed with gratitude. Uttering a word of thanks, he bowed and departed. Zooma’s mother could not believe her eyes when she saw her colt alive again, and she could not believe her ears when she heard about the lion that had treated him so kindly.

By and by, the lion Rooma grew old, while Zooma became a muscular stallion. One afternoon, when Zooma was grazing with his companions near a hillock, he heard a big commotion. He heard the feeble roars of a lion and the cackling noise of laughing hyenas. Those roars were not of anger and authority, but of pain and distress.

Zooma and his friends reached the scene to find an old lion fighting off two hyenas. Zooma thought for a second and decided to intervene. His friends were reluctant to join him. "Don’t be a fool, Zooma! It is a lion—our worst enemy. Leave him to his fate!"

"No," Zooma said. "Once, a lion spared my life, and I have been looking for an opportunity to show a similar gesture to a lion all these years. Now the chance has come. I won’t let it slip through my fingers."

Saying these words, Zooma stormed in and started to kick the life out of the two hyenas. Zooma’s dreadful hooves disemboweled the hyenas, which died laughing in agony.

The lion said, "Thank you, Stripy, for saving my life."

"No mention, Your Majesty. I just returned a favor which another of your species showed me when I was a small colt."

"My God! What a coincidence?" the lion exclaimed. "I am the same lion that saved and spared you that hot afternoon from the jaws of a leopard!"

Zooma took his leave from Rooma, but not before the old lion hugged him and pressed him close to his graying mane.