The Lion and The Woodcutter

The Lion and The Woodcutter
The Lion and The Woodcutter :
There once lived a lion, the king of the forest. He was always accompanied by a jackal
and a crow. They followed him every where and lived on the remains of his food.
In a village close to the forest there lived a woodcutter. Everyday, he would go into the
forest with his axe to chop wood.
One day as the woodcutter was busy chopping a tree, he heard a noise behind him.
Turning around, he saw the lion looking straight at him, ready to pounce. The
woodcutter was a clever man. He quickly said, “Greetings… King of this forest. It is a
pleasure to meet you."
The lion was surprised. “A pleasure to meet me? Are you not afraid of me?"
“I respect you a lot…lion. I was hoping to meet you. You see, my wife is an excellent
cook. I wanted you to taste her dal and vegetables."
“Dal? Vegetables? Don’t you know that I eat only flesh?" asked the lion in surprise.
“If you taste my wife’s cooking, you will stop eating flesh," said the woodcutter proudly.
The lion was very hungry and he accepted the woodcutter’s food.
“Good that the Jackal and the crow are not with me today," thought the lion. “They
would laugh at me."
The lion was surprised to find that the food was indeed very tasty. “I have never eaten
such good food," he said.
“You are welcome to share my food everyday, O king. But no one should ever know
about our friendship. You must come alone."
The lion promised. Everyday, the lion would eat lunch brought by the woodcutter and
their unusual friendship grew to be stronger day by day.
The crow and the jackal were anxious to know why the lion had stopped hunting. “We
are going to starve to death if the lion does not hunt anymore," whined the jackal.
“You are right," said the crow. “Let us try to find out what has happened to the lion." The
next day they followed the lion from a safe distance and saw him eating the lunch the
woodcutter brought for him.
“So this is why the lion does not hunt anymore," said the jackal to the crow. “We have to
get the lion to share his food with us. Then may be we can break his friendship with the
woodcutter and the lion will start hunting his prey again."
When the lion came back to his den that evening, the crow and the jackal were waiting
for him. “My lord, why have you forgotten us? Please let us all go hunting like we used
to," pleaded the crow and the jackal.
“No! I have given up eating flesh, ever since I met a friend who changed me from my
old ways," said the lion.
“We would also like to meet your friend," said the crow.
On the following day, the wood cutter was as usual waiting for his friend the lion.
Suddenly, he heard voices. The woodcutter was a very careful and clever man. He
immediately climbed a tall tree. In the distance, he could see the lion approaching. With
him were a crow and a jackal. “With those two around, my friendship with the lion will
not last very long," he said to himself.
The lion came over to the tree and called out to the woodcutter, “Come down and join
us. It is me your friend."
“That may be so," called out the woodcutter. “But you have broken your promise to me.
If those two can make you break a promise, then they can make you kill me also. You
can forget our friendship."
Proud Red Rose
One beautiful spring day a red rose blossomed in a forest. As the rose looked around, a pine tree
nearby said, “What a beautiful flower! I wish I was that lovely.” Another tree said, “Dear pine, do
not be sad. We cannot have everything.”
The rose turned and remarked, “It seems that I am the most beautiful flower in this forest.”
A sunflower raised its yellow head and asked, “Why do you say that? In this forest there are
many beautiful flowers. You are just one of them.”
The red rose replied, “I see everyone looking at me and admiring me.” Then the rose looked at a
cactus and said, “Look at that ugly plant full of thorns!”
The pine tree said, “Red rose, what kind of talk is this? Who can say what beauty is? You have
thorns too.”
The proud red rose looked angrily at the pine and said, “I thought you had good taste! You do not
know what beauty is at all. You cannot compare my thorns to that of the cactus.”
“What a proud flower,” thought the trees.
The rose tried to move its roots away from the cactus, but it could not move. As the days passed,
the red rose would look at the cactus and say insulting things, like ‘this plant is useless. How
sorry I am to be his neighbor.’
The cactus never got upset and even tried to advise the rose, saying, “God did not create any
form of life without a purpose.”
Spring passed, and the weather became very warm. Life became difficult in the forest, as there
was no rain. The red rose began to wilt.
One day the rose saw sparrows stick their beaks into the cactus and then fly away, refreshed.
This was puzzling, and the red rose asked the pine tree what the birds were doing. The pine tree
explained that the birds were getting water from the cactus.
“Does it not hurt when they make holes?” asked the rose.
“Yes, but the cactus does not like to see the birds suffer,” replied the pine.
The rose opened its eyes in wonder and exclaimed, “The cactus has water?”
“Yes, you can also drink from it. The sparrow can bring water to you if you ask the cactus for
help.”
The red rose felt too ashamed to ask for water from the cactus, but finally it did ask for help. The
cactus kindly agreed. The birds filled their beaks with water and watered the rose’s roots.
Rose learned a lesson and never judged anyone by their appearance again.

The Lion and The Woodcutter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Lion and The Woodcutter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Lion and The Woodcutter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Lion and The Woodcutter

The Lion and The Woodcutter :

“What a proud flower,” thought the trees.

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.