In the ashram of the sage Gautama, there lived a hermit called Mahatapa. One day he found a little mouse that had been dropped by an eagle near the hermitage. The hermit took pity on the little creature and took it home. He looked after the mouse, feeding it grains of rice, till it became well and strong again.

One day, the hermit saw a cat running after the mouse to eat it. The hermit at once turned the mouse into a bigger cat. But the mouse, now though a cat, was afraid of dogs; so the hermit turned into a dog. But the dog was still afraid of tigers, so the hermit made it into a tiger.

But though the mouse was now a fearsome tiger, the hermit still looked upon him as a mouse, and on seeing the hermit with the tiger, all the people would also say, “This hermit turned a mouse into a tiger.”

This irritated the tiger a great deal. “As long as this hermit lives, I will never be considered more than a mouse,” he thought to himself, and thinking thus, he decided to kill the hermit.

But the hermit realised what the tiger was planning and declaring “Be a mouse again!” immediately tuned him back into a mouse.

A person must never be appointed to a position beyond his ability.