In the Panchatantra, King Immortal-Power gives his three dull sons to Vishnusharman, who teaches them with five books of animal tales. What does this outer frame give every tale inside it?

In the frame, Vishnusharman promises the king: 'If I do not, in six months' time, make the boys acquainted with the art of intelligent living, I will give up my own name.' What does this add to the tales that follow?

Cheek warns Victor with a verse: 'Death pursues the meddling flunkey: / Note the wedge-extracting monkey.' Victor asks how that was, and Cheek tells The Wedge-Pulling Monkey. Why does Cheek tell this tale?

In Book II, Swift asks Gold the mouse to explain his gloom. The story then begins: 'On this food I subsisted with my companions.' What has changed at that moment?

In Book II, Gold the mouse tells his own story to Slow and Swift. Because he stands inside the events he narrates, what must his account leave out?

Inside Gold's own story, a holy guest named Wide-Bottom tells the hermit a tale beginning: 'At one time I asked a certain Brahman in a certain town for shelter during the rainy season.' Who is 'I' here?

The rabbit tells Numskull that 'in mid-journey there issued from a great hole in the ground a lion' who called Numskull a sneak thief. Why is this account unreliable?

Slow-Poison tells the frogs a Brahman cursed him: 'you shall for this sin become a vehicle for frogs, and shall subsist on whatever they choose to allow you.' Why should the frogs doubt this?

Far out at sea the crocodile finally says: 'Sir, I have deceived you and brought you to your death.' The monkey asks why he was not told on shore. What does the delay achieve?

Back in his rose-apple tree, the monkey answers the crocodile with a verse, and the crocodile asks, 'How was that?' What does answering with a tale do here that a plain refusal would not?

Each Panchatantra tale is introduced by a short verse naming its point, and only then is the tale told. What does giving the point first do for the listener?

Book I reports that the merchant's men lied: 'Poor Lively died,' they said. The next lines show Lively alive by the Jumna, growing plump as Shiva's bull. What does this order of information do?

Live-Strong tells the owls: 'For your sake I have been plunged into this calamity by Cloudy.' Red-Eye replies: 'My dear sir, you are wily and plausible.' What does Red-Eye see that the other owls miss?

Red-Eye answers Live-Strong with a verse saying 'The mouse-maid turned a mouse again,' then tells that tale. Why does he tell it at this moment?

In the Panchatantra, a tale is sometimes told by a character who is himself a character inside a tale that someone else is telling.

Book IV opens with a verse ending 'The monkey tricked the crocodile.' Then the princes ask, 'How was that?' Who answers them?

Before Live-Strong goes to the owls, he tells Cloudy his plan: 'I will deceive them and put them in a fatal situation.' What does hearing the plan first do for the reader?

Cheek ends his tale with: 'And that is why I say that meddling should be avoided by the intelligent.' What does this closing line do?

Rusty is frightened by a great sound. Victor says: 'I thought at first that it was full / Of fat; I crept within / And there I did not find a thing / Except some wood and skin,' then tells the tale. Why?

Book I opens: 'The forest lion and the bull / Were linked in friendship, growing, full: / A jackal then estranged the friends / For greedy and malicious ends.' What does opening with the outcome do?