Mouse lives to teach, and Crow receives a gift

A crow was flying over the mountain tops, watching as its shadow moved swiftly over trees and bushes. It was hoping to find something to satisfy hungry children because it had nothing in its house and had not thought about storing food.

Looking down, the crow noticed something moving among the grey stones. The black bird descended and as it got closer it could see that the shape was a mouse warming itself in the sunshine.

The crow slowly landed silently on a stone and it could see the mouse’s fur shining in the light.

“The mouse is very big,” the crow thought, it’s heart beating fast with joy. “I will catch it and feed my children well.”

The crow leapt but as it moved, a shadow fell over the mouse and it ran towards its nest. The crow reached forward and caught the mouse’s tail in its beak. It flew up, holding on tightly as the mouse screamed and squirmed, legs moving in the air.

The crow prepared to dash its prey against a rock to kill it before going home with the sumptuous meal. He was thinking how happy his children would be when he heard the mouse’s voice calling.

“Oh, crow, you will suffer much for eating me.”

The crow clacked but wouldn’t open its mouth.

So the mouse tried again.

“I will give you something even more delicious. You will never be hungry again … Don’t eat me because you will lose the happiness of a lifetime for the pleasure of one single day!”

The crow nodded but wouldn’t open his mouth to speak so the mouse would not be able to escape.

“I am not lying,” the mouse said because it could see the crow didn’t believe his words. “Take me back to my house. You don’t have to let me go. When we are there, I will call my children to bring you the prize. Remember that I am still in your mouth and can’t run away.”

The crow, still holding the mouse’s tail, followed the mouse’s directions to get to its home. When they landed, one of the mouse’s daughters was waiting.

“Oh, mother,” the baby cried, her ears were twitching. “Our father has fallen into the mouth of the black beast.”

“Don’t cry, my daughter,” the father mouse said confidently. “Bring nuts from the house so that I will be set free.”

The mouse had many children, each one came into the open with a nut in its mouth. The pile grew until their father spoke again.

“This is good. Leave the food here and go inside so you will be safe.”

When the children had gone, the mouse turned to look at his tail which was still clamped in the crow’s beak.

“Here, beast. I have fulfilled my promise. You must let me go.”

The crow looked at the ground, moving its head this way and that. It was only a small pile of nuts and wouldn’t last as long as the fat mouse he could soon be eating… While the crow was thinking, the mouse turned and bit the crow’s leg with its strong jaws.

“Caw!” the crow screamed.

As the crow’s mouth opened, the mouse pulled its tail free and ran away.

The crow pecked at the door, dust rose in a great cloud, but the mouse was secure. When it stopped scratching, the crow could hear the mouse talking to his children who were celebrating as they listened to the story of the day.

“My children are hungry,” the crow wept and he could hear that, inside the house, the mice had become silent.

“You are a father, just like me and must feed your family,” the father mouse answered from the safety of his home. “I can give you some advice so that the lives of others may be spared. Store food when you have plenty, work hard, and in this way you will never be hungry or worried.”

The crow looked at the brown nuts in amazement, wondering how they could be eaten.

It tightened its beak on one but it was firm. It lifted the little nut high… when it dropped, the shell crumbled and kernels scattered everywhere. The meat tasted good and the crow remembered his hungry children.

He filled his beak with nuts and flew quickly home to deliver the surprise to his family.

When he arrived, he showed them how to drop nuts from the nest one by one. As each shell shattered, the father flew down to bring kernels back into the nest where the mother and children waited with open beaks.

“Let me try, Father,” the eldest child spoke.

She dropped a nut and they watched as it bounced and rolled away until it could no longer be seen.

There was plenty of food and no-one was worried as the crow told his children and wife about the story of the clever mouse.

One year later, a plant began to grow near the crow’s nest with a tall stem and green leaves as wide as the ears of a mouse.

The crow turned to his children who had grown big and curious.

“This is the plant of the clever mouse. We will take care of it and store food on the days when we have plenty.”

From this day onward, the family of crows left the mice to their peaceful life. And never again did they worry about food or fear for hunger.