The Guardian reports the discovery of a letter in which author Rudyard Kipling admits to plagiarism by 'promiscuously' helping himself to other stories while writing "Jungle Book."

Is Rudyard Kipling "Jungle Book" plagiarized? A letter has been discovered where the author admits to referring to other stories while writing the famous children's fiction. The letter, written and signed by Kipling was addressed to an unknown correspondent and appeared to be written around 1895 when an inquiry about "The Law of the Jungle" was going on.

"Now this is the Law of the Jungle - as old and as true as the sky; / And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die," writes Kipling in his poem. "The Kill of the Pack is the meat of the Pack. Ye must eat where it lies; / And no one may carry away of that meat to his lair, or he dies."

The letter was discovered by Adam Andrusier, director of Adam Andrusier Autographs, at the New York Antiquarian book fair last month from a fellow UK manuscript dealer. He says parts from the letter suggest that the hierarchical jungle code could have been line from other story sources.

"I am afraid that all that code in its outlines has been manufactured to meet 'the necessities of the case': though a little of it is bodily taken from (Southern) Esquimaux rules for the division of spoils," Kipling wrote in the letter. "In fact, it is extremely possible that I have helped myself promiscuously but at present cannot remember from whose stories I have stolen."

The letter is currently being sold of approximately $3,800.

"A letter that casts new light on an author's celebrated work tends to capture the imagination of the collector," Andrusier said. "Personally, I rather like his candidness about the possibility of his plagiarism in 'The Jungle Book'; I think people tend to have a misapprehension about writing needing to be unswervingly original, when so much literature is either consciously or unconsciously borrowed."