The Lion in the Well

In a forest there lived a cruel lion. Every day he hunted as many animals as he pleased and left most of them uneaten. The animals gathered and went to him: "Let us send you one animal every day, and you stop hunting and emptying the forest." The lion agreed.

Days passed. The hare's turn came. The hare was small but very clever. "I am not going there to be food; I am going to finish the lion," he said. Slowly, and very late, he went before the lion. The lion was roaring with hunger: "Why are you late? And you are so small!"

The hare bowed: "Sir, there were actually two of us hares; me, and a bigger one, so that there would be enough for you. But on the way another lion appeared. 'This forest is mine, and the food here is mine,' he said, and took the big hare. I barely escaped."

The lion was furious: "Another lion in my forest? Show him to me!" The hare led the lion to the head of an old stone well. "He lives inside," he said. The lion looked down into the well. In the water he saw an angry lion looking back at him. He roared; the roar echoed back out of the well. He bared his teeth; the one in the water bared his too.

"Are you mocking me?" he shouted, and leapt into the well to attack the lion in the water. Splash! The well was deep. However much the lion thrashed, he could not get out.

The hare went back to the forest: "The lion is in the well now." The animals did not believe it at first, then they danced with joy. The old elephant asked the hare: "How did you defeat such a strong animal?" "I didn't defeat him," said the hare. "His own anger defeated him. I only showed him a mirror."

From that day on, when the animals of the forest were angry with each other, they first looked into the well; not to jump in, but to see their own faces.