The Hermit and the Loyal Weasel (from Kalila wa Dimna)

The book of Kalila and Dimna tells that a good hermit lived with his wife in a small hut at the edge of a quiet village. The hermit loved peace and quiet and reflection. He helped the poor and planted his little garden with flowers and vegetables. He and his wife wished for a child, and they waited many long years.

The villagers loved and respected the hermit. They came to ask his advice about their affairs and to hear his stories and counsel. He sat with them under the mulberry tree in front of his hut and told them, "My children, what people regret most is a decision made in anger, or a judgment given before they knew the truth." The children loved to sit at his feet and listen to his stories.

One day, the hermit found a baby weasel lost in the field, shivering with cold and unable to find its mother. He carried it home, fed it, and cared for it until it grew up. The weasel became tame and loyal. It followed the hermit everywhere, played in the garden, and slept by the door like a little guard of the house.

The weasel was very clever and understood the hermit's words from the tone of his voice. If he said, "Come," it came running, and if he said, "Guard," it sat by the door and didn't move. It chased the mice out of the storeroom and kept the insects away from the garden, until one day the wife said, "This little one has become our house's faithful guard." The hermit laughed and said, "He's a member of our family."

Some time later, the hermit and his wife were overjoyed, for they were blessed with a beautiful baby. They loved him dearly. They laid him in a carved wooden cradle and sang to him until he fell asleep. The weasel sat near the cradle, looking at the baby with shining eyes, as if it were guarding him too.

If the baby cried at night, the weasel ran to the hermit's room and tugged at the edge of his robe, as if to say, "The little one needs you!" And when the baby slept, it sat quietly beside the cradle without making a sound. The wife would laugh and say, "It seems he loves the baby more than we do!" And the hermit would say, "Loyalty doesn't need words; it shows in deeds."

One day, the wife needed to go to the market to buy a few things, so she told her husband, "Stay with the baby until I come back, and don't leave him alone." But soon a messenger came from the village asking the hermit to come quickly to help a sick neighbor. The hermit didn't know what to do. Then he looked at the weasel and said, "My friend, guard the baby until I come back. I won't be long." And he hurried out.

Before he left, the hermit looked at the sleeping baby, covered him well, and made sure the door was shut. Then he looked at the weasel sitting near the cradle and saw in its eyes something like a promise. "I trust you, my friend," he said. And he walked quickly toward the neighbor's house, telling himself, "I'll help him and come right back."

While the house was quiet and the baby was asleep in his cradle, a big black snake came in through a crack in the wall and slithered toward the cradle. The weasel saw it. Its fur stood on end, and it leapt bravely between the snake and the baby. It circled the snake, squealing and jumping, and kept it from getting any closer, until the snake grew tired and afraid and fled through the same crack to the faraway fields, never to return. In the fierce struggle, the weasel had scratched its nose, and its legs were smeared with dirt and mud.

A little later, the hermit came home. The weasel ran out to meet him at the door, jumping with joy, as if it wanted to tell him what it had done. But the hermit saw its legs smeared with mud, its nose scratched, and the house a little upturned, and a terrible, frightening thought came into his mind: "The weasel must have hurt my child!"

On the way home, the hermit had been thinking about his sick neighbor. He was tired, and the sun was hot over his head. His heart was full of worry for his child, for he had been away longer than he had promised. When he saw the door slightly open, he felt anxious, and when he saw the weasel in that state, frightening thoughts leapt into his head before he saw anything else.

The hermit's heart filled with fear and anger, and he raised his stick to strike the weasel without thinking. He almost did, but at the last moment he remembered something he always told his students: "Don't judge before you see with your own eyes." His hand stopped in the air. He slowly lowered the stick and said, "I must see my child first."

The hermit ran inside and found his baby sleeping peacefully in his cradle, smiling in his sleep, completely unharmed. Then he saw on the floor the long trail of the snake stretching from the cradle to the crack in the wall, and he understood everything: the weasel had defended the baby and bravely driven the danger away!

The hermit followed the snake's trail and found some mud and scattered dirt by the crack in the wall, and he saw that the snake had gone out there and fled to the field. He realized the weasel had risked its life for the baby, and that it had been jumping with joy at the door to tell him what it had done, not to hide anything. A shiver ran through the hermit's body, and he said, "How astonishing! How close I came to a terrible mistake!"

The hermit sat on the floor and held the weasel in his hands with tears in his eyes. "My loyal friend," he said, "you protected my child, and I nearly did you a terrible wrong! Forgive me. How could I think badly of you when you are the most loyal of friends?" He wiped the weasel's scratched nose, washed its legs with warm water, and fed it the best food.

When the wife came back from the market, the hermit told her what had happened. She was amazed and said, "Thank God you stopped and didn't rush. If you had acted hastily, we would have lost a loyal friend, and you would have spent your whole life in regret." Then they sealed the crack in the wall so that nothing could get in through it again.

That night the hermit and his wife sat and talked for a long time. The hermit said, "For many years I've taught people not to judge in anger, and today I nearly forgot my own advice. Anger is like dust: it covers the eyes so they can't see the truth." His wife said, "But you remembered at the right moment, and that is what makes someone wise: stopping to think before acting."

From that day on, the weasel was the most treasured member of the family. The child grew up and played with it in the garden every day, and his father told him the tale of the brave guard who had saved him when he was a baby. The hermit told the story to everyone who visited him and said, "This is the greatest lesson I have learned in my life."

In the days that followed, the villagers came to see the hero weasel. The children brought it fruit and grain and made it a little wooden house beside the cradle. The hermit began his gatherings under the mulberry tree with the story of that day, then asked those present, "What would you have done in my place?" And each of them learned to be slow and careful in judging.

This fable from Kalila and Dimna teaches us not to rush to judge others by appearances, but to make sure, ask, and see with our own eyes before we get angry or act. Haste can lead us to wrong those who love us, while patience and calm thinking keep our friends and our peace of mind. This is a lovely piece of wisdom we can always remember in our lives and teach to our friends and little brothers and sisters.