Panchatantra (Five Chapters) in Sanskrit is perhaps the oldest collection of stories in the world and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Each of its 'Chapters' contains a string of stories one emerging from the other, with each designed to lead to a precept for proper practical conduct for a thinking person in the real world. The characters are taken from the whole gamut of living beings including humans and animals in the wild. In a way the unity of life is stressed by assigning the sentiments, emotions and thoughts of human beings to animals as well. In this collection, three cunning fellows vex a Brahmin into throwing away a goat carried by him, by calling the animal as a calf, a dog and a donkey. An elephant heeds the request of mice not to trample them; and is gratefully freed by them when trapped later. A sage turns a mouse into a girl. When she is grown up and asked to choose a groom, she rejects the sun, cloud, wind and mountain one by one and settles upon the mouse as the mightiest. This Panchatantra collection is a treasure house of a variety of such stories. A collection of tales compiled by Vishnu Sharma, for his young students some 2,200 years ago, the Panchatantra is still correcting common human weakness with its wry humour. - from Amzon