Ungrateful
Tiger
A long time ago, high in the
mountains, the people of a small village came together to decide what to do about
tigers wandering near their home.
"We have to do something!
With all these tigers wandering around we're too scared to go out of the
village" said one man.
"Yes! we have to do
something. Last week a tiger ate one of my legs" said another, pointing to
his leg that was not there.
After much talking the villagers
decided the best thing to do was to dig deep holes to trap the tigers. Everyone
helped, including the bigger children and the man whose leg was not there. They
dug deep holes near all the tracks leading to the village.
A few days later a young man came
to visit his uncle and heard loud howling sounds as he walked along a track to
the village.
"What's making all that
noise?" he asked. "Whatever it is it doesn't sound very happy."
The young man followed the howling
sounds until he saw a deep hole with a tiger in it. The tiger tried to jump out
and each time he fell back and howled.
"Hello Mr. Tiger" said
the young man. "How did you get down there?"
"I don't know" cried the
tiger. "I was walking along in the forest as tigers do, looking for
something to eat, when suddenly I fell into this deep hole."
The tiger pleaded with the young man to help him. "Please,
please help me get out of here. My wife and children will be worried about me.
If you help me I'll be very grateful."
The young man was a very kind
person. He found a large tree branch that had fallen on the ground and pushed
and pulled it to the side of the deep hole.
"Watch out Mr. Tiger"
yelled the young man as he pushed it down inside.
The tiger sprang up the branch and
out of the deep hole.
"Ah! that's better" said
the tiger pleased to be free.
The young man felt suddenly very
nervous, standing next to the large tiger and decided to leave.
"I must be going now.
Good-bye Mr. Tiger" he said.
"Not so fast" said the
tiger. "I'm going to eat you."
"But, but, you said you'd be
grateful if I helped you" stammered the young man.
"I am grateful" said the
tiger. "But it was humans who dug that hole to trap me and since you're a
human I am going to eat you."
"That's not fair" cried
the young man.
"I'm a tiger and that's what
tigers do. Eat people" growled the tiger.
"I helped you and now you're
going to eat me just because I'm human" said the young man. "I think
we should ask some one else to judge if that's fair or not."
The tiger agreed and they went to
look for someone to act as a judge.
They found an Ox and told him the
story. "I think it's fair for the tiger to eat you" said the Ox.
"Humans treat us Oxen very badly. We're made to work all day and when you
want to, you kill us and eat us."
The tiger moved closer to the
young man, who quickly yelled "Let's make it two out of three."
The tiger agreed and they went to
ask the biggest tree in the forest. "I think it's fair for the tiger to
eat you. You humans chop us down whenever you want to and set fire to the
forest and burn us."
The tiger looked pleased and
showed his big teeth as he smiled at the young man.
The young man was so frightened
his legs began to shake. He saw a hare hopping along. "Please Mr. Hare,
help judge if Mr. Tiger should eat me."
The hare listened to their story
then said "Before I can judge I must see exactly what happened."
They all went to the deep hole
where the young man had rescued the tiger.
"Now show me exactly where
you were" the hare said to the tiger. Anxious to hurry up and eat the
young man, the tiger jumped down into the hole.
"Was this branch in the
hole?" asked the hare.
"No it wasn't" answered
the tiger. The young man and the hare pulled the branch out.
"My judgment is that it's not
fair for you to eat the young man" said the hare. "Just because it
was humans who dug the hole doesn't make it fair for you to eat him. You should
have been grateful for his help."
The hare hopped away and the young man hurried off to the village
leaving the ungrateful tiger howling in the deep hole.
