Pandit Narayan Bhatt believed to be the dependant of Dhavalchandra the king of Bengal has written this book. It is believed that this book must have been written between the tenth and fourteenth century A.D. Taking inspiration from Panchtantra this book is written. In this book also sermons are given through the stories of birds and animals as we find in the book Panchtantra.
There are four parts section in this book. In each part dedactic stories are given in different numbers. For example the first part-section is 'Mitrabhed". In it there are didactic stories pointing out the importance of friendship, how to make friends and how to sustain friendship. The second part-section is 'Suhrudbhed". In it the didactic stories pointing out how friendship changes with the change in situation and ultimately lose friends.
In the third part-section 'Vigraha' there is collection of didactic stories teaching war policies. In the fourth and the last part-section there are stories teaching how we can establish union even between the persons who are quite opposed to one another.
Twenty five stories out of forty three are straightway included in this book seventeen stories are quite original. There are five sections in Panchtantra. Narayan Bhatt has included the stories from those sections in his own way. Thus Narayan Bhatt decided himself in which section of his book Hitopdesh to put those original stories from Panchtantra.
The special contribution of Hitopdesh is the well- known stories like the story in which a mouse transformed into a cat, a cat into a tiger and ultimately a tiger into a mouse with a statement () (be a mouse again) an attempt to seal the ocean as it drowned the eggs of a female lapwing (Titodi).
In the starting of this is noted श्रुतो हितोपदेशोऽयं पाटवं संस्कृतोक्तिषु । वाचां सर्वत्र वैचित्र्यं नीतिविद्यां ददाति च। In other words the listeners of this Hitopadesh reap three benefits : (1). proficience in speaking Sanskrit, (2) unusualness in speech (different from the way other speak) and (3) Knowledge of ethics. All these sentences said by the writer prove to be true.