Once there was an ant. She was very hungry. She stepped out of her burrow to search for food.
As she was walking, a spider weaving his web spotted her. He rushed toward her and said,
“Ant, Ant! I want to eat you. I’m terribly hungry.”
The ant replied,
“My belly is completely empty. I’m out looking for food myself! Eating me won’t fill you up. It would be better if you looked for something else to eat.”
And the ant walked ahead.
At that moment, a sparrow came flying and said to the spider,
“Spider, Spider! I’m going to eat you.”
The spider replied,
“Oh! I haven’t eaten anything today. My belly is completely empty. How would eating me satisfy your hunger? Go find something else to eat.”
Saying so, the spider returned to his work, and the sparrow flew off to find food.
The sparrow was flying along when a hungry kite saw her, swooped down, and caught her in her beak. The kite then said,
“Sparrow, Sparrow! I’m going to eat you.”
The sparrow replied,
“Sister Kite, I haven’t had anything to eat since morning. I’m completely hungry. Eating me won’t fill your belly either. Please let me go and look for something else to eat.”
The kite released the sparrow from her beak and went off to search for food.
While searching, the kite found an entire flatbread (roti). She was delighted.
As she flew along with it, she thought,
“This flatbread is too big for me to eat by myself. My belly doesn’t have room for the whole thing. Half of it will fill me up, and if I give the other half to the sparrow, she’ll be full too. Let me go and give the sparrow half the flatbread.”
So the kite flew back to the sparrow and gave her half of the flatbread. The sparrow was overjoyed.
The sparrow thought,
“Oh! My belly is so tiny. What will I do with so much flatbread? Let me give some to the spider. That way, we’ll both be full.”
So the sparrow gave some flatbread to the spider. The spider was so thrilled, he started jumping for joy.
While bouncing around, the spider thought,
“My belly is quite small. How can I eat so much flatbread? Let me give some to the ant. That way, both of us will be satisfied.”
The spider then took a piece of flatbread and gave it to the ant. Upon seeing the flatbread, the ant was overjoyed and began to dance.
She took the flatbread back to her burrow, where many ants were gathered. As soon as they saw the flatbread, they came running. They all shared the flatbread and ate it with laughter and happiness.
(And if you place your ear near the ant’s burrow even now, you might still hear the sound of their giggles.)
Everyone ate, drank, and rejoiced together!
