The Clever Rabbit and the Lion

Told in English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Spanish, French, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese.

Come close, my little one, and I'll tell you how the smallest, cleverest animal in the forest outwitted the biggest, scariest one. In a forest lived a very proud lion who made all the other animals terribly afraid — so afraid that they agreed to send him one animal to eat every single day, just so he wouldn't hunt them all down at once. Can you imagine living with that kind of fear?

One day, it was the turn of a small, clever rabbit. Now, instead of running away in fear, do you know what the rabbit did? She walked slowly, taking her time, arriving at the lion's den very late on purpose. 'Why are you so late?' the lion roared furiously. 'Forgive me, my lord,' said the rabbit calmly, 'but another lion stopped me on my way — and he said HE is the true king of this forest.'

Oh, the lion was absolutely furious! He demanded to be shown this rival immediately. So the clever little rabbit led him to a deep, still well and pointed down into the water. And guess what the lion saw, my dear? His own reflection, staring back up at him! But he didn't realize it was himself — he thought it was the rival lion, and he roared with all his might and leapt straight into the well to attack it. And that, my darling, was the end of the proud lion. All because one small, clever rabbit used her brain instead of her feet — proving that even the smallest of us can outsmart the strongest, if we just think carefully.