Tenali Rama and the cat
Reading time aloud: about four minutes.
Tenali Rama was the jester-poet of the Vijayanagara court — the southern cousin of Birbal, and rather more mischievous.
King Krishnadevaraya had a problem with rats. The palace had them, the city had them, and somebody suggested cats.
So the king issued an order, as kings do. Every household in the capital was to be given a cat and a measure of milk each day to feed it. The cats would grow strong, the rats would go, and the matter would be settled.
Tenali Rama received his cat and his milk like everyone else. And he heated the milk until it was scalding, and set it down in front of the cat, which put its nose in and leapt back with a shriek.
After that the cat would not go near milk at all. Not warm milk, not cool milk, not milk in a different bowl. The sight of it was enough.
A month later the king's men came round to inspect. In every house they found a fat, glossy cat and a family that had quietly been drinking most of the milk themselves.
In Tenali Rama's house they found a thin cat that fled from a full bowl.
He was summoned. The king was not amused. "Everyone else's cat drinks its milk. Explain yourself."
"Your Majesty ordered that every household be given a cat and milk," said Tenali Rama. "It was carried out exactly. The cat was given the milk. The cat declined." He paused. "Perhaps the order should have said the cat must drink it. Though then Your Majesty would want to know who has been drinking it in all the other houses."
And the court went very quiet, because everybody there had a cat at home and a family that liked milk.
Two jokes at once. The obvious one is that an order carried out to the letter can defeat its own purpose. The sharper one is what Tenali Rama does not say directly — that everyone else was quietly cheating, and he proved it by being the only person who technically wasn't.
In some tellings he's punished briefly before the king sees the joke; in others the king laughs first. The rat problem is sometimes plague, which gives it a darker edge. Tenali Rama stories are told in Telugu and Tamil with real local pride — he's a folk figure, not just a courtier.
See also: Birbal and the khichdi.
Last updated: 2026-08-11
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