Once upon a time a number of fish lived in a small pond. They lived very happy all the while there was down pour until summer. soon the water began to dry up. it got lower, to an extent there was hardly enough to hide the fish.
Not far away was located a beautiful and never dry lake. laid under the shadow of great trees. And a Crane lived on the banks of this lake.The Crane preyed on every of the fish in that lake till all was gone, when he couldn't catch any fish again he decided one day, to try the dry pond where the fishes in there were gasping for breathe, and thought of a neat trick to get hold of them without trouble.
In order to get all the fish in that pond, the crane thought up a clever plan. He would trick the fish, and deceive them into trusting him. Then when they trusted him the most, he would gobble them up. He thought he was such a good trickster for thinking up such a trick.
To begin with, the crane sat down on the shore quietly with a pale countenance in one position, watching the suffocating fishes pathetically.this was intended to get the fish to trust him.
The fish came to him and asked. "Sir crane, what are you thinking?" The holy-looking crane answered, "Oh my dear fish, it makes me sad to think of your future. I am envisaging how it would look like if the most miserable disaster hit you." The fishes asked in curiosity, "My lord, what disaster could be worse than what we are experiencing now?"To which the crane replied, "Look around you! There is very little water left in this pond. You are also running out of food to eat. This severe drought is very dangerous and the truth is that more drought is about to hit this period, and i'm so concerned for you poor little ones."
Then the fish asked, "mr crane, what can we do to save ourselves out of this plight?" "My little friends," said the crane, "thats the reason i'm here, if only you can trust me and allow me to pick you up in my beak one after the other and convey you to a bigger and beautiful lake where water never dries"."The water is very fresh, cool and deep within." he added. The Fish were indecisive and hesitant to believe the crane. To them its absurd to suppose that a crane would help fish, just as its unthinkable that a cat would be that nice to a mouse. So they said to the Crane, " sorry mr crane we don't believe you; we've never imagined a crane to be this nice, we are sure you are up to something."
The crane lowered his voice, made himself look more dignified and spoke convincingly. He said, "No you all are getting it wrong, you don't have to think that way. i cant even hurt a fly let alone beautiful creatures like you. You should trust me. But if you don't believe me, let one of you go with me and I will show him the beautiful lake and bring him back for benefit of doubt."they persuaded a small fish to go and see.
The Crane took the small stature Fish in his beak and put him in the lake; and when he had seen that what the Crane said was true so far, he carried the Fish back again to tell the others.
Arriving home, the little fish described the wonders of the beautiful big lake. Hearing this, all the other fish became very excited and rushed to be the first to go.
They came to the top of the water, all begging the Crane to take them to this beautiful lake.
"One at a time!" said the Crane. "I have only one beak, you know!" And he smiled to himself, for that beak was made to eat fish, not to carry them.
However, it was decided that as the small Fish had been so brave as to trust himself in the Crane's beak, before he knew what the truth was, he certainly deserved to go first.
The wicked crane took him to a top tree, pull out his two eyes and a meal of him. he came back several times and did the same to others.
And so it went on, until in a few days the pool was empty. The cunning Crane had eaten every single one of the fish! He stood on the river bank, peeping into every hole, to see whether there might not be a little one left somewhere.
One day, while peering so hard, a crab came out from his hiding and confronted him. "why are you always here to spy mr crane?" the crane was stoned a fright as he losed balanced and almost sliped but he got hold of himself ontime and covered up with a sheepish smile. He said in a sad voice, " Oh dear crab I feel so sorry for you staying here all alone, when your families and friends are up there in the bigger lake enjoying". "oh thank you crane you dont have to feel sorry for me, i can survive in both land and water".
The cunning crane persist with his conviction; "but you cant just be left all alone here, if you simply do as the fish have done, and let me pick you up in my beak, I will gladly take you there For your own good."
The crab thought for a while, "There is no doubt this pot-belly crane has eaten all those fish. He is so full and could hardly walk freely, he definitely cannot be trusted! If I can get him to carry me to this new pond and drop me in it, so much the better. But if he dares me , I will have his head cut off with my claws."
The wise crab agreed "but on one condition"he said "You will allow me grab onto your neck with my eight legs, so i wont fall and then you can safely carry me to my new home."
The short thinking crane agreed, he was so used to playing tricks on others, that he did not imagine he would be in any danger -even though the crab would be grasping him by the throat.
He permitted the crab to grab onto his neck with all eight legs and off they went.
The foolish crane, with his neck in the clutches of the crab, flew past the lake to his usual killing spot. ''but we just pass a lake, is there any other one at the front?" asked the crab.
The crane answered ''There is no lake anywhere you fool, soon i will eat you up like i did to the fish".
In that anger the crab gathered all his courage and grabbed the neck of crane with his claws and said '' why have you forgotten so soon that i'm capable of crushing you to death with my claws round your neck, now carefully take me back to my home otherwise I will kill you ". the crab fondled his neck a little hard. The crane having known the danger he was into, obeyed and flew back.
The crane flew down to the shore but the crab played smartly as he realized the crane could not be trusted. he knew he may want to play a fast one on him at that point, so he nipped off the cranes head. And so perished the trickster crane. The crab jumped into the shore( his new found home) and lived happily in the beautiful lake for the rest of his life.
Moral;
sometimes life plays tricks on you, so be prepared to trick the trickster.
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