The king of crows was not satisfied with the suggestions and sought the advice of Sthirajeevi, an old minister of the king's father, "You have heard the suggestions by my ministers. Please suggest me the right course of action that we should adopt." 
 
Sthirajeevi replied, "Your Majesty, all ministers have suggested in accordance to nitishashtra, and their recommendations are indeed good. But they do not serve the situation that we are in. For an enemy who is much stronger than us, we should a path of intrigue. You will need to send spies to find their weak-points to outwit the enemy" 
 
The king of crows agreed as Sthirajeevi explained the plan, "Like I advise you to employ spies, the enemies also must have spies. Let us pretend that I am a traitor, and start cursing me with cruel words. Beat me till I bleed and throw me down. This will mislead the spies to believe I am their enemy's enemy. After this, fly with everybody to the safe Rshyamukam Mountain and keep deeply entrenched till I join you" 
 
Sthirajeevi continued, "Meanwhile, I will gain confidence with our enemies to learn about their weaknesses and return to join you when we can strike them to gain victory. Please do not worry about me, I can take care of myself." 
 
The king did as the wise crow had planned and immediately started a fake quarrel. Sthirajeevi used abusive language which angered the other crows. Meghavarana pounced upon Sthirajeevi, smeared him with blood and threw him down the Banyan tree. 
 
After this, he asked all crows to follow him, and flew straight to Rshyamukam Mountain, whereupon he waited for Sthirajeevi to return - as was planned. 
 
The owl-spies immediately informed the king of the owls of the fight and Arimaradana decided to attack the terrified crows with all might after dark. But when they reached the Banyan tree, the crows had already left. They started investigating which direction the crows had flown to catch them. 
 
At this moment, Sthirajeevi began to caw feebly to attract the attention of the king of owls. Arimaradana heard the sound and was surprised to see Sthirajeevi. Sthirajeevi started praising Arimaradana as much as he cursed Meghavarana. He further said, "I know where they will entrench themselves. As soon as I regain some strength to fly again, I shall take you there!" 
 
Arimaradana had five ministers: Raktaksha, Kriuraksha, Deeptaksha, Vakranasa, and Prakarakarna. While Raktaksha, Kriuraksha did not trust Sthirajeevi and wanted to kill him, the others suggested that he could prove beneficial to locate the enemies. So, Arimaradana decided to take Sthirajeevi to their cave and offered a suitable place to rest. 
 
But Sthirajeevi had other plans. He quickly requested Arimaradana to allow him to make a nest at entrance of the cave. He did not want the other owls to get offended since he belonged to the enemy clan. Arimaradana permitted and asked other to take good care of him. Thereby, Sthirajeevi was fed with the choicest of foods and regained strength.