This is classified as ATU 2028. The Devouring Animal.
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There was a jackal which ate anything it came across, whether it were dead or alive.
One day he met a tiger and said to him, “I will eat you. I will not let you go.”
“Very good,” said the tiger, “eat me.”
So the jackal ate him up.
He went a little further and met a leopard; he said to the leopard, “I will eat you.”
“Very good,” said the leopard.
So he ate the leopard. He went a little further and met a tiny mouse.
“Mouse,” he said, “I have eaten a tiger and a leopard, and now I will eat you.”
“Very good,” said the mouse.
He ate the mouse.
He went a little further and met a cat. “I will eat you,” said the jackal.
The cat answered, “What will it profit you to eat me, who am so small? A little further on you will see a dead buffalo: eat that.”
So the jackal left the cat and went to eat the buffalo. He walked on and on, but could find no buffalo; and the cat, meanwhile ran away.
The jackal was very angry, and set off to seek the cat, but could not find her. He was furious.
NOTES
Told us by Gangiyá, a hill-man from near Simla.
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