Just So Stories · Chapter
How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin explained
A Parsee living on an uninhabited island in the Red Sea bakes a large cake, but a rude Rhinoceros steals and eats it.
What happens
A Parsee living on an uninhabited island in the Red Sea bakes a large cake, but a rude Rhinoceros steals and eats it. Later, when the Rhinoceros sheds his skin to bathe, the Parsee fills it with stale cake-crumbs. When the Rhinoceros puts the skin back on, the crumbs cause unbearable itching, and his frantic scratching creates permanent folds in his skin, explaining why rhinoceroses have wrinkled skin and bad tempers.
Themes in this chapter
Cunning and Resourcefulness
The Parsee cleverly uses cake-crumbs to punish the Rhinoceros for his rudeness and theft.
Consequences of Idleness
The Rhinoceros's lack of manners and disregard for others leads to his permanent physical change and bad temper.
Justice and Punishment
The Parsee's revenge serves as a form of poetic justice, teaching the Rhinoceros a lasting lesson.
Characters to notice
- The Parsee
The Parsee (Pestonjee Bomonjee) bakes a cake, has it stolen by the Rhinoceros, and later exacts revenge by filling the Rhinoceros's skin with cake-crumbs.
- The Rhinoceros
The Rhinoceros (Strorks) steals the Parsee's cake, later removes his skin to bathe, and after putting it back on filled with crumbs, scratches himself into permanent wrinkles.
- Best Beloved
Addressed as 'O Best Beloved' in the narrative, the implied child listener.
Key passages
“Them that takes cakes / Which the Parsee-man bakes / Makes dreadful mistakes.”
Those who steal cakes baked by the Parsee will suffer serious consequences.
The Parsee's recited sloka warns of the repercussions of stealing his cake.
“He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants as ever it could possibly hold.”
The Parsee filled the Rhinoceros's skin completely with old, dry cake-crumbs and burnt currants.
Describes the Parsee's methodical revenge by stuffing the skin with irritating crumbs.
“He rubbed so much and so hard that he rubbed his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, and another fold underneath, where the buttons used to be (but he rubbed the buttons off), and he rubbed some more folds over his legs.”
The Rhinoceros scratched so vigorously that his skin developed permanent folds on his shoulders, legs, and where the buttons were.
Explains the origin of the rhinoceros's wrinkled skin.