There was a mouse who lived in the house of a magician.
"Help me, magician!" said the mouse. "I'm tired of being a mouse. I want to be a cat instead!"
"A cat....?" muttered the magician, rummaging in his magic books. "I don't have a spell to turn you into a cat. Would you like to be a dog?"
The mouse shook his head no.
"A human?"
No.
"A tiger?"
"Oh yes!" squeaked the mouse. "Turn me into a tiger."
So the magician turned the mouse into a tiger.
"Thank you!" roared the tiger, and then he ate the magician.
Inspired by: "With a Wave of the Wand" in A Twist in the Tale by Aditi De, 2005.
Notes: You can read about the state of Maharashtra in western India at Wikipedia. Aditi De's version is more elaborate: after the mouse becomes a tiger, the villagers mock him for having the heart of a mouse; thinking the magician betrayed his secret, the tiger-mouse goes to confront him, and the magician turns him back into a mouse. My story is quite different, but it is the only way I could fit it into 100 words. Compare the story of the brahmins and the tiger bones.
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