The Trap

A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was aghast to discover that it was a rat trap. Retreating to the farmyard the rat proclaimed the warning; "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The rat turned to the lamb and told him, "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!" "I am so very sorry Mr. Rat," sympathized the lamb, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers."

So, the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's rat trap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a rat trap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever.

Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. His wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the lamb. The farmer's wife eventually recovered and got well.

And so, the moral is: anytime one hears that someone in the farmyard is facing a problem and one thinks that it does not concern him/her, remember that when there is a rat trap, the whole farmyard needs to be concerned and does the needful.

Does this story ring a bell?