The Rabbit and the Tortoise

    Hello everybody,

    Today I have brought you the story of the rabbit and the tortoise.

    It is a story with a great lesson. You should never put down anyone for anything. You cannot know what that other person is capable of.

    I am not going to say anymore but let you read and enjoy the story yourselves.

THE RABBIT AND THE TORTOISE

    As you know, the rabbit is a very fast and cunning animal. Well, once, it got into his head that he was the cleverest and the fastest animal in the jungle. So, he began to boast and brag about it. Also, he began to taunt and degrade other animals, especially the tortoise because it is a very slow animal. All the animals got really got fed up of his bragging. So they decided to do something about it. Then, tortoise, which was the angriest and very tired of the rabbit, had an idea to teach him a lesson. He thought out his plan carefully.

   The idea was to challenge the rabbit to a race with the tortoise. Surprising, isn’t it? Well, he did. He was so fed up! And what’s more he was quite confident he would win!

    The next, a meeting of all the animals was called and the tortoise challenged the rabbit to a race.

    Upon hearing this, the rabbit laughed until he cried.

    “You must be joking, right?” he asked wiping the tears from his eyes.

    “No, I am not,” replied the tortoise, solemnly. “I have never been more serious in my life.”

    “You will lose horribly,” said the rabbit. “Don’t say afterwards I didn’t warn you. You will just be making a fool out of yourself.”

    “We’ll see about that,” replied the tortoise, feeling angry at the rabbit’s arrogance but not showing it.

    All the animals were angry but the conceited rabbit took no notice of them. It was decided that the match would take place in the morning of the next day. The time and place was decided and everybody went home.

  The next day, all the animals turned up to see the great race. Tortoise was already there. The rabbit came a bit late. He looked bored, quite sure he would win the race easily.

   “I hope you are ready,” the rabbit taunted the tortoise. “You are just wasting your time. You don’t stand a chance against me, I’m telling you. Why don’t you just quit before it’s too late?”

    The rabbit didn’t say anything. He just pretended he hadn’t heard it.

    Soon, the owl, who had been appointed to start the race, stood both the contestants in line and then gave a signal for the race to begin.

    

 The rabbit went away like the wind and the tortoise started at his own pace.

    

 Halfway, through the race, the rabbit looked behind him and saw that there was no sign of the tortoise. He just laughed and then he decided to have a nap under a tree as it was so hot, quite sure that the tortoise would never catch up with him even if slept for a while. So he lay down under a tree and went fast asleep.

   

    Meanwhile, the tortoise went on at his own pace, slowly but surely. When he reached halfway, he saw the rabbit fast asleep under a tree. He smiled and carried on. Gradually, he reached the finishing line. When he reached there he did not see the rabbit. He had won! All the animals cheered to see the tortoise win the race!

   

    Meanwhile, let’s see what happened to the rabbit. As we know he had gone to sleep under a tree. After a long time he woke up. He remembered he had to finish the race. He looked up and down the path but did not see the tortoise. He smiled triumphantly and started to run towards the finishing line. But, what’s this at the finishing line? Why was everyone cheering already? And what did he find out when he reached closer? He saw something he couldn’t believe his eyes!

    The tortoise had already reached the finishing line!

    The tortoise had won the race!

    He, the rabbit had lost the race! Lost it to the tortoise, the slowest animal in the kingdom! 

    The rabbit was furious, but he couldn’t do anything about it. It was his own fault. He had underestimated the tortoise, so now he had to pay for it.

    From that day onwards, the rabbit never degraded anybody. If he did the other animals reminded him of the race with the tortoise.