The Silly Crocodile

A clever fox decided to set up a nursery school for the baby animals of the jungle and so one day he put on a pair of looking glass, hung a sign board and sat beside a stream waiting for his students. A crocodile had seven kids and she wanted her kids to be able to read and write and so she spoke with cunning fox. ‘Very well’ answered the fox thorough his glasses, ‘but you have to leave them with me’. 

           

The following day, the mother crocodile brought her seven kids and left them in the fox’s den. The fox gathered the kids in a secluded corner and said, ‘I am your master and every body must listen to me’. Then he took one kid near him and said, ‘everybody repeat with me, urugud, burugud, baby crocodile tastes good’ so saying he ate that crocodile. Now there were six crocodiles left. That evening when the mother crocodile came to see her kids, the fox stood in front of the hole, took out one baby crocodile and counter ‘one’. Then he put it back, took out another one and counted ‘one’. Then he put it back, took out another one and counted ‘two’. Thus he counted five crocodiles. The sixth crocodile, he counted it twice, making it appear that there are seven crocodiles. As all the baby crocodiles looked the same, the mother could not figure out the missing one.

            The next day, too, the fox took the kids inside the hole and ate another crocodile, leaving only five. That night, when the mother crocodile came, the fox as before, stood in front of her hole and counted the fifth crocodile three times, again making it appear that there are seven kids. After eating the last crocodile, the fox left her hole and went away. That night, when the mother crocodile could not find anyone, she entered the hole and found it littered with bones. She vowed to punish the fox and teach him a lesson.

            After days of searching, the crocodile found the place where the fox was hiding; it was near a brook and the fox often came to the brook to drink water. So the crocodile hid under the marshy water and water for the fox. Around noon time, the fox stepped into the water, the crocodile moved fast and grabbed his leg. Sensing the danger, the fox said, ‘hey friend, what are you doing? don’t you know I can’t see very well these days, so I carry my stick with me, now if you only let it go, I can get up’.

   

The crocodile quickly let the leg go in order to catch the leg, when whosssh! the fox jumped out of the water and ran away. Once more the crocodile was fooled by the fox, but still she did not give up.

            The crocodile found out that the fox visits the sea shore often accompanied by his wife and thought of a novel way to catch the fox pair. Then on e day, she lay down on the sand motionless, eyes closed as if appearing dead. The fox and his wife came to the shore and seeing the crocodile lying on the sand without even moving, the fox halted at a distant and said, ‘wife, I wonder whether this crocodile is alive or dear, for a dead crocodile always wags it’s tail, and this one is not’ The crocodile did not want to be fooled and so as soon as she heard this, she started to wag her tail. Seeing this, the fox laughed aloud, ‘see, I knew she was just pretending’ and then they left for another place. But the crocodile never gave up chasing the fox and even to this day foxes do not go to drink water, where crocodiles are present.