THE FOOLISH COBRA

Zamba the Cobra lived with his wife Xena in the jungles of Sunderban. They lived happily in a big ant hill under a huge oak tree. Zamba used to go for food and Xena used to look after the children.
One fine day Zamba decided to shift their cozy little home to the outskirts of the village. He was bored with the forest food and was greedy after the food that human beings ate. Xena was unhappy because they were well setteled with their children in the dense forest. She knew there were far greater dangers of being caught or killed if they wandered across the village. The human being could kill them. Therefore she tried her level best to persuade Zamba from making the mistake.
“Let us be happy with what we eat in the jungle” she cried “this is our place. Why should we go break the rules and go near the humans?”
“You foolish woman,” hissed Zamba, “Stop murmuring, it is decide that we are going.”
After few days Zamba, Xena and their five young snakes arrived at the outskirts of the village. They settled down near a tree. Zamba was very excited because he had heard many stories from his friends about the human beings and their food habit. He was eager to taste chickens and eggs.
One sunny afternoon Zamba started in his adventure. Slowly he slithered among the dry leaves and neared a cottage from behind. There was no one around. Zamba wanted to inspect the place a little bit. He could see a small shed where many chickens were feeding and one of the bigger hens was crowing. Suddenly a boy came out from the cottage and carried a white object from underneath the hen.
“Is that the egg, which tastes wonderful?” Zamba thought.
Quickly he inspected the area and went back to his house. He planned to taste the eggs as soon as possible.
The next day as soon as the hen started crowing, Zamba moved smoothly into the shed and swallowed the egg. Then he quietly slide through an opening on the wall and went out.
The boy who came several minutes late was surprised to see the nest empty. There was no egg.
This went on for a while and Zamba was enjoying himself. Xena was begging him to stop this nonsense but his snake sense took the better of him. He was not ready to give up stealing even though it was dangerous. Xena was sure that some day her husband’s theft will end in disaster.
Sure enough the boy Toby who lived in the cottage with his father found out the mystery of the missing eggs. He was in for a big shock and trembled when he saw who the culprit was. Toby told his father and together they made a plan to teach the cobra a lesson.
The next day Zamba unsuspectingly entered the shed and swallowed the egg. The egg seemed unusually warm that day. Perhaps the hen has a high temperature, he mused. As usual he turned to leave through the opening. His routine was to go through the opening which was slightly bigger enough for his figure to pass through. So he used to twist his body a bit so that the egg would break inside his stomach and then he would go out
smoothly. To day as he twisted his body, the egg did not break inside his stomach. Instead he was stuck in the hole on the wall. His head and half of the body was outside and the rest with the egg was inside the shed. Zamba tried again. “hey! Why is the egg not crushing today? He thought?
Quickly Toby and his father moved form their hiding with strong club and weapons in their hands. Snap! Thud! Whoosh! Went their hands. Within a minute justice was done. Zamba was caught in the hole and could not free himself. As his eyes closed, he remembered Zena’s words: “Do not disobey the law of your forest. You will be caught one day”. It was too late now.
Toby and his father congratulated themselves for killing the foolish snake through a boiled egg.
(The story is a modified version of the story from “jungle book”)