Folktale about rabbits and turtles
One day, two rabbits came to a riverside and saw lush green grass on the other side. They really wanted to cross the river to enjoy a good meal. However, they didn’t know how to swim. As they were worrying, they suddenly noticed an old turtle in the water.
The rabbits had a clever idea. They ran to the riverbank and said to the old turtle, “Auntie Turtle, we’ve heard that you have many children, is that true?”
The turtle nodded repeatedly and said, “Yes, yes, that’s true.”
The rabbits pretended not to believe her and said, “But our brothers are much more numerous than your children.”
The turtle, not believing them, said, “Stop bragging! I always see just the two of you. I’ve never seen any of your brothers.”
The rabbits said, “They’re all at home. If you don’t believe us, let’s have a contest between our two families.”
The turtle asked, “How do we compete?”
The rabbits said, “Today, we’ll count your children, and tomorrow, we’ll count our brothers.”
The turtle agreed, “Okay, how do we count?”
The rabbits said, “Call all your children here and have them line up from this side of the river to the other side, two by two in a row, floating on the water’s surface. We’ll count them as we hop from one to the next.”
So, the old turtle called all her children, and they lined up neatly across the river.
The rabbits then began hopping from turtle to turtle, counting as they went: “One pair, two pairs, three pairs…” As they counted, they made their way to the other side of the river.
The two rabbits triumphantly hopped onto the riverbank and shouted, “Fools! You fell for our trick!”
But they celebrated too early. Although they had successfully jumped onto the riverbank, a pair of turtles at the edge of the river had bitten onto their tails. The rabbits struggled to pull free, and in doing so, their tails were bitten off.
From that day on, rabbits have had short tails.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
