The Four Scholars and the Lion

Four skilled brothers together bring a dead lion to life, and it kills them all. Each did his part, so who among them was guilty of their deaths?

Four brothers, each master of one magic skill, find a lion's bones and rebuild it step by step: flesh, skin, limbs, and finally life. The revived lion kills all four. Each contributed, so who is guilty of their deaths? The answer is not all of them, and not none. You judge first, then the king does.

The Burning Ground

The corpse was in the tree again. The king went up for it, bound it fast, and shouldered it back onto the ash. The Vetala settled behind his ear and opened a new run of tales with a strange one.

The Four Who Made a Lion

Four brothers, the sons of a brahman named Vishnusvamin, were left orphaned and neglected by their relatives. So they agreed to go out into the world, each in a different direction, and each to master some rare power, and then to meet again. And when they met, each had learned one strange and wonderful skill.

The first could take any scrap of bone and grow upon it the flesh of the creature it had belonged to. The second could clothe that flesh in its proper skin and hair. The third could shape its limbs. And the fourth could give the finished body life.

Eager to show one another what they could do, they went into the forest and found a bit of bone lying on the ground, not knowing what animal it had come from. The first made flesh grow upon it. The second gave it skin and hair. The third formed its limbs. And now there lay before them, plain for anyone to see, the shape of a lion, whole and perfect, and lacking only breath. Then the fourth brother, to crown their display, breathed life into it.

The lion woke. It rose up on its four legs, shook out its great mane, and fell upon the four who had made it, and killed them all.

The Betaal's Riddle

"So, king," said the Vetala. "Four brothers made a lion between them, and it killed all four. Now tell me, which of them was guilty of their deaths? Each did his part. Each lent his skill. Where does the fault lie?