The Quarrelsome Quails: A Jataka Tale with Moral
Quick answer: The Quarrelsome Quails, the Sammodamana Jataka, retold in full: a flock escapes the fowler's net by lifting it together, until they start to bicker. The moral about unity.
A thousand quails rise under a fowler's net as one bird and carry it off to a thorn bush, and the fowler goes home empty for the first time in his life. The Quarrelsome Quails is the Sammodamana Jataka, number 33 in the Pali collection.
The story
A flock of a thousand quails lived in a forest near Benares, and a fowler lived off them. He knew their call and could make it in his throat, and when they gathered to answer he threw his net over the whole crowd, gathered the edges, stuffed them into his basket and sold them in the market by the dozen. Every week the flock grew smaller.
Their king was a wise bird, and he called the survivors together. 'When the net comes down, do not flap and fight it. Each of you put your head through one mesh and, when I call, rise together. We will carry the net to the thorn bush, drop it over the thorns, and fly out from underneath.' The next time the fowler cast, the ground under the net rose in a single brown wave, and the net sailed over the grass and settled on a thorn bush, and the quails poured out beneath it.
It happened again, and again, and the fowler's wife asked him why he came home with nothing. 'They work together,' he said. 'But wait. They are quails. The day will come when one steps on another's head, and then they are mine.' He was right. One morning a quail, rising, trod on the head of the bird beside him. 'Who do you think you are?' 'You lift your share. I am doing all the work.' 'You? You barely flap.' The quarrel spread through the flock in an hour.
The wise king heard it and said quietly to those who would listen, 'There is no safety among the quarrelsome,' and he led his own followers to another part of the forest. The next time the net fell, half the birds under it were waiting to see whether the others would lift first, and none of them did, and the fowler filled his basket to the brim.
The moral, and what it actually means
The Jataka states it in the king's own line: there is no safety in a quarrelling flock. In the Buddhist frame the quail king is the Buddha and the tale was told to a community of monks who had fallen out. What the story shows, more exactly, is that cooperation fails not through weakness but through accounting. The moment each quail starts measuring who lifts more, the net becomes too heavy for all of them.
Where the tale sits and why it has lasted
It is Jataka 33, the Sammodamana Jataka, and a close version exists in the Panchatantra, where the same quails argue in the same net. It has lasted because the trick and the failure are the same action seen twice. First the flock rises together and the reader cheers; then the flock waits to see who rises, and the reader knows before the fowler does.
For young readers and classrooms
Ideal from about six upward.
Write your own
The engine is the repeated action that succeeds and then fails with no change but attitude. Show a group perform a feat perfectly, plant one small accident, and let the same feat collapse because the members are now watching each other. Every Writory entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100, and mirrored structures like this tend to earn theirs on craft.
What writers can take from this
- For readers: the fowler's speech to his wife is the story's hinge; he understands the flock better than the flock does.
- For teachers: the bedsheet activity makes the moral physical in five minutes.
- For teachers: compare with The Bird with Two Heads from the Panchatantra, another creature destroyed by refusing to act as one body.
- For writers: let the villain forecast the failure. A predicted disaster feels more inevitable than a surprising one.
- For writers: the wise character leaves early. Not every story needs its sage to fix things.
Try it yourself
Write a story about a group that has learned to do one difficult thing together and does it flawlessly, until a small accident makes them start keeping score. The thing that beats them must be the exact thing they used to beat, and it must not have changed at all.
Questions
What is the moral of The Quarrelsome Quails?
There is no safety among those who quarrel. The quails escape the net as long as they lift it together and are caught the moment they start arguing about who does more.
Which Jataka is The Quarrelsome Quails?
It is the Sammodamana Jataka, number 33 in the Pali collection, told to reconcile quarrelling monks. A close version also appears in the Panchatantra.
Is The Quarrelsome Quails suitable for children?
Yes, from about six. The net trick is delightful to act out, and the failure is easy to understand and discuss.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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