Aesop | Greece
The Fox and The Hedgehog
Crafty Fox gets trapped, attracting mosquitoes; Hedgehog offers help, but Fox declines, knowing new hungry mosquitoes would come if the full ones were gone.
In the middle of a large forest, there was a clever Fox. One day, the Fox had an accident. His tail got stuck in a bush, and he couldn’t get free. Since he couldn’t move, the small mosquitoes in the forest started to notice him.
The mosquitoes saw the trapped Fox as a chance to get some food. They flew around him, and one by one, they bit him and drank his blood. The Fox felt pain with every bite, but he couldn’t stop them.
A friendly Hedgehog was walking by and saw the Fox’s problem. Feeling sorry for him, the Hedgehog offered to help. "Dear Fox," the Hedgehog said, "I can roll over and use my sharp spines to push away the mosquitoes."
But the Fox, even though he was hurting, quickly said, "No, no, don’t do that!"
The Hedgehog was surprised. "Why not?" he asked. "They are biting you and making you suffer."
The Fox explained, "The mosquitoes that are on me now are full. They have already taken as much blood as they can. If you chase them away, new hungry mosquitoes will come. Those new ones will bite me even more. It’s better to let these stay."
So, the Hedgehog listened to the Fox, and the Fox stayed still, knowing that it was better to have the full mosquitoes than to attract new, hungry ones.
