The Dog’s Curly Tail

One afternoon the courtiers of Vijayanagara were arguing about whether people can change.

“Anyone can be changed,” said one courtier, a stubborn man named Gopal. “A thief can become honest. A bully can become kind. You only have to work hard enough at it. With enough effort, you can change the nature of anything.”

“Anything?” asked Tenali Raman.

“Anything at all.”

Tenali whistled, and a friendly street dog with a curly tail trotted up to him. “Then here is a little test. Can you make this dog’s tail straight?”

The court laughed, but Gopal took up the challenge. The king, amused, offered a reward of a hundred gold coins if the tail could be straightened in three months.

Gopal took the dog home. He fed it well, brushed its fur, and every day he gently straightened its tail and tied it to a smooth wooden stick so that it would stay straight. Later he slipped the tail into a hollow bamboo tube and fastened it there, so it couldn’t curl at all. The dog didn’t mind. It got good food and a soft bed, and it wagged its tube happily wherever it went.

After three months Gopal brought the dog to court, with its tail still inside the bamboo tube.

“Your Majesty, I have done it. The dog’s tail is perfectly straight.”

“Show us,” said the king.

Gopal untied the bamboo tube and slid it off. For one moment the tail stayed straight. The court murmured.

Then the dog saw Tenali Raman, whom it remembered fondly. Its tail gave a little twitch, a wiggle, a wag. And it curled up again into a perfect, cheerful loop, exactly as before.

Gopal’s face fell. The court laughed, and the king laughed with them.

“It seems some things cannot be changed by force, Gopal,” said the king.

“Not by tying them up, Your Majesty,” said Tenali, bending down to scratch the dog’s ears. “A dog’s tail is curly because it is a dog. You can make it straight for a while, but the moment you let go, it goes back to being itself.”

“And people?” asked Gopal, rather glumly.

“People can change,” said Tenali. “But only when they want to, from the inside. Not because someone ties them to a stick.”

The king gave Gopal ten coins for his patience, and the dog went to live at Tenali’s house, where it wagged its curly tail for many happy years.