The Lazy Hunter
The Lazy hunter is a folktale about the importance of hard work and consequences of laziness.
The Lazy Hunter
A long time ago, a hunter went to the forest to hunt for his game. He worked all day, but he couldn’t find any game; the ones he found, he couldn’t kill them. After trying for so long, he went under a tree to rest.
“My God, I wish I could have someone hunt for me while I sit under this tree and just enjoy the game,” he said. He made this statement because the tree was so airy and cosy. The hunter lifted his eyes and saw some deer on the fields.
“I would love to have one of those deer for dinner. I heard that they are very nice and sweet,” the hunter said again. His stomach rumbled as he continued looking at the deer, but he couldn’t stand up or kill one of them because he was very lazy.
Suddenly out of nowhere, he saw a cheetah observing the deer. The cheetah waited patiently till the herd of deer left, and only one was left behind, then he attacked. The cheetah chased after the deer so much till he finally caught up with it and killed it.
The lazy hunter watched all this happen while hiding carefully. So, the cheetah didn’t see him.
He watched as the cheetah took the meat by its neck and went into a cave-like structure covered with leaves. The lazy hunter immediately knew that the cheetah’s cub was there, and he envied them.
“Gracious Lord, I wish I could have someone hunt for games like this for me,” the lazy hunter said again, and then a very evil idea entered his mind.
“I know! I will steal one of the cubs, and then the cheetah will hunt for me every day,” the lazy hunter said, and a wicked smile graced his face. So the lazy hunter made the cheetah’s life routine very important to him to master. The lazy hunter would sit for hours watching the cheetah come and go because he was trying to find out theme the cheetah left and when it came back.
One day, the lazy hunter finally figured it out. He discovered that the cheetah always left very early in the morning to hunt for food, and returned in the evening to be with her cubs. So the lazy hunter waited till it was time for the cheetah to leave. Immediately he saw that the cheetah had left, he snuck into the cheetah’s house and took all his cubs without leaving even one behind.
When the cheetah returned in the evening, she didn’t understand where her cubs had gone. The cheetah let out a loud cry. The cheetah became frantic and started looking all over the forest for her cubs, but she couldn’t find them. So she went to the top of the mountain and cried so painfully. Her streams of tears were interrupted by an old wise man.
“My dear cheetah, why are you crying,” the old wise man asked her.
“It’s my cubs. I can’t find them anywhere. I think someone must have stolen them,” the cheetah responded.
“When did you notice that they were stolen?”
“This evening, when I came back from hunting,” the cheetah said. The old wise man thought for a long and then said.
“Maybe they ran away. Let’s go into the village and ask the villagers if they have seen your cubs. The cheetah was so happy with the suggestion that she cleaned her eyes and nodded.
They went into the village and asked the villagers if they had seen the cubs.
“Yes,” one of the villagers said. “I saw the hunter come back with the cubs in the morning. I saw him again with the cubs this evening; it appeared he was training them for something.”
Immediately the cheetah heard this, she got very angry. “What is he training them for? Just tell me where he lives!” The cheetah said to the villager, and they pointed her in the direction of the lazy hunter’s house.
The cheetah ran to his house, and the villagers went with her. The cheetah finally caught the lazy hunter. She was about to kill the lazy hunter when the old wise man arrived at the scene and told her not to.
Instead, they threw the lazy hunter out of the village and forced him to live in the forest all the time and fend for himself.
Moral Lesson
If you want something, work diligently for it and never take a bad shortcut.
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