The Lion and the Rabbit

There was a lion in a forest who killed far more than he could eat. He killed in the morning because he was hungry and in the afternoon because he was bored, and the forest was emptying out.

So the animals went to him together — the deer, the boar, the buffalo, the birds — and made him an offer. «Stay where you are,» they said. «One of us will come to you every day. You will never have to hunt again.»

The lion thought it a very good arrangement, and for a while it worked.

Then one day it was the rabbits' turn, and the rabbit they chose was the smallest and the cleverest, and he did not go at dawn as he was supposed to.

He went at noon. He walked. He stopped to look at things on the way.

The lion had been waiting since sunrise and was in a state that made the birds leave the tree above him. «You,» he said. «You are late, and you are also extremely small.»