Once upon a time, in a dense forest there lived many wild animals. It was home to so many animals – like elephant, gorilla, monkey, chimpanzee, deer and others.
The forest was ruled by a sharp, clever and cunning lion. He would lord over all the animals of the forest. They all were terrified of him.
One day, the lion called all the animals of the forest for a meeting. The animals were very scared and anxious to know what the lion would say in the meeting.
All the animals gathered together. The lion soon arrived.
He looked at everyone and said, “From tomorrow, I want you all to follow a rule that I give you.”
There was a long pause.
Unable to control his curiosity, the gorilla hesitatingly asked the lion, “Sir , if I may ask you, could you please tell us the rule that we all need to follow.”
The lion replied, “Wait, You foolish animal! I will tell you. I am mulling over it.”
All the animals were ever more scared now and waited quietly.
Finally, the lion said , “From now on, every day, you all have to send me an animal for my dinner. If you do not follow this rule then you all will be in for a lot of trouble.”
All the animals were shocked to hear the rule! But they had no choice. They had to accept the lion’s rule.
The lion continued, “I am now appointing an assistant who will bring the animals everyday to my house. My assistant will be the deer.”
The deer was surprised and shocked. How was he supposed to react to this decision. But he was too scared to voice his thoughts. So he said, “Ok Sir. I will do as you say. I will be there at your service with an animal every morning.”
The lion left the meeting and went back to his den.
From that day, every morning, the deer would take an animal along with him to the lion’s den. All the animals were very disturbed because of this rule. They knew that soon one day, it would be their turn to be the lion’s feast.
One night suddenly there was loud thunder. Soon, it started raining heavily. All the animals ran into their houses. But the lion wanted to enjoy in the rain.
He ran through the forest and sat in the rain. He enjoyed and had so much fun in the rain.
As the rain stopped he returned back to his house and went to sleep as he was very tired.
Next morning when the lion got up, the deer was there at his service. The deer asked the lion, “Sir, whom should I get for your feast today?”
As the lion opened his mouth to speak, a loud sneeze escaped – “Aaaachhoooo!“.
The lion had caught a cold enjoying in the rain. He tried to speak once more, but as soon as he opened his mouth – “Aaaachhoooo!”
He could not speak, and waved the deer away.
This continued for many days. The deer would go to him every morning, but as soon as the lion would try to say something – “Aaaachoooo!”
This way, he was not able to say anything to the animals and therefore he was not able to get any animal for his feast. He would stay in his den all the time, hungry. Soon he started growing weaker.
Seeing the lion like this, all the animals decided to help him. They searched the forest and collected some medicinal herbs. They ground it together and made a tonic.
Now the problem was – who would go and give this to the hungry lion.
The deer said “I will not go. I go to him daily and he is tired of seeing my face.”
The monkey said, “I will also not go to him, he is a dangerous fellow, and has been hungry for many days.”
Finally the gorilla said, “Ok, I will go to him and give him this tonic.”
The gorilla went to the lion’s den and told the lion, “Sir, we animals know that you are in a lot of pain. We have made a medicine for you. Please have it, it will help you.”
The lion said, “Aaaachhhooooo…Ok….Aaaachhhooooo…..Keep there…..Aaaachhhooooo…..Will think….Aaaachhhooooo…About It….Aaaachhhooooo.”
The gorilla kept the medicine at the entrance and left the lion’s den.
The lion’s pain went on increasing with each passing day. Finally, he decided to take the medicine. The very next day, when he woke up, his cold had vanished. So had his pain!
He was very happy. He thought about his behavior towards the animals in the forest. He had put them into trouble as he was too lazy to hunt. Yet they had all helped him when he was in trouble.
So he decided that he would no longer trouble any animal of the forest and would be good to them.
After this day, all the animals in the forest lived happily and fearlessly in the forest.
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