Once upon a time there was a sore famine in the land and so all the animals of the forest held a meeting to discuss this matter. The King of the Beasts, -His Majesty the Lion chaired the meeting and spoke up first- my brothers and fellow comrades, I believe that the reason for this famine is that one of us have offended God by a terrible unpardonable sin.So there is a heavy conviction in my conscience that a confession of our heinous crimes must be made today. I for one in my hunger have torn many of my fellow citizens to death and had them for lunch, dinner, crunched their bones and squeezed out their delicious marrows for supper.There is nothing like a blood soaked meal.I am still grieving for what I have done.
Then the fox spoke out-I feel very humbled by your Majesty's honesty but I must confess that I have snatched many little lambs from their mothers arms and have had many great meals.For that I am sorrowful but I feel the real culprits are the Shephards since they were sleeping on their jobs.All the other eminences were assembled there -the tiger, bear , crocodile, snake,hyena and each in turn made their grim confession of murder, brutal killings,mutilations, rapes,cannibalism and the phythons sobbing confession of swallowing other citizens while still alive.
Then all eyes fell on the ass and the ass nervously made his confession. Well my beloved countrymen -I distinctly remember some time ago that I passed by the old farmers house who lives at the edge of the forest.I could not help noticing the lump of lovely and delicious green grass in his farm So I quietly sneaked up and grabbed a mouthful and quickly slipped away.
To this confession all the other animals shouted with one voice against the ass,screaming on top of their voices- Why you vile beast, how could you ever have the heart to do such a heinous crime against an old farmer? Surely YOU are the reason for this famine!!! And in the commotion, they tore the ass to death.
MIdnight Tales from Vijay
Penang.
