ThaThe Rat, The Chicken & The Farmer 


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 pig 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 pig, "but there
nothing I  can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my
prayers."

The rat turned to the cow. She said, "Like wow, Mr. Rat. A rat
trap. I am  in grave danger. Duh?"

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 that friends and  neighbors came to sit with her around
the clock. To feed them the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well. She died, and so many people
came for  her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to
provide meat for  all of them to eat.  So the next time you hear that
someone is facing a  problem and think that it does not concern you,
remember that when there is a rat trap in the house, the whole
farmyard is at risk. 

 

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