There was once a mouse who made himself comfortable in a farmer's house. Food was plentiful, there were simply tonnes of places to scurry about and have fun and a nice little hole on the kitchen roof to doze. Things were just fine. The farmer's wife however thought a little differently about sharing her house with a mere mouse. So one fine morning the mouse saw the farmer walk into the kitchen with a mousetrap. He was greatly alarmed and rushed out to seek some help.
He first came across a chicken and pleaded with her "Please, please dear Hen, help me get rid of the mousetrap". The hen was pecking at her morning grain and wouldn't be too bothered. She clucked "ahh hmm.. well its a mousetrap, it ain't no threat to me... you do it yourself please".
The mouse was disappointed but he rushed on and saw a pig wallowing in the mud. "Please please Mr. Pig, do help me get rid of the mousetrap" the mouse tried again. The pig loved his morning wallow and he too wouldn't be too bothered so he grunted "oink umh.. well you see god made me big so that i cant possibly fit into a puny mousetrap. Buddy I got bigger things to worry about so dont bother me with your little problems. Now if you please you are cutting my sunshine".
The mouse just sighed and rushed on. Just as he took the turn around the barn he saw a cow grazing in the fields. "Aha", he said, "now here a true friend in deed". So he rushed to her and asked for help. Now the cow was a gentle creature and knew all about helping others and all that. But you see she hadn't eaten in a while and the grass was really green and juicy. So in a way she wouldn't be not too bothered... right now atleast.
So she mooed "dear dear mouse, life is such you know. God throws us all challenges and wants us to take them on so that we can become strong. Now if one kept asking for help with all the challenges then wont that spoil God's great plan. Come on, help him out, that mousetrap is your problem, deal with it. Now run along please"
The mouse was tired of running around trying to get help and in any case everybody seemed to tell him that this was his problem. And weren't they right too. After all how can a piddly mousetrap ever be a threat to them. Mousetrap was made for trapping mice. Period. So he decided to do something about it himself. He thought and thought all day but couldn't find a way to get rid of the mousetrap. So very tried and scared he crept into his little hole and went to sleep.
Around midnight when all was dark and quite the farmer's wife suddenly heard the mousetrap spring shut and with a whoop of delight she rushed towards the kitchen to see her mouse caught. It was very dark and therefore she didn't see that it was not a mouse that was caught but a snake's tail and the snake, mad with pain, went straight for her leg and sank its fangs in. She screamed and that brought the farmer with a light and that was the end of the poor snake. Now the farmer ran to get a doctor who came rightaway and did all he could to save her.
In the morning the doctor asked the farmer to get something for her to eat as she continued to be very weak. So the farmer went out, caught hold of the chicken and made some nice chicken soup for his dear wife. That day all sorts of relatives and friends and friend's of friends kept dropping in to check on his wife. Now he was a good host and would hear nothing of not taking any trouble and so he got the pig butchered and had some nice ham and bacon and sausages for the guests to eat while he faithfully served his ailing wife. But all his efforts were in vain as the wife soon passed away. So now the farmer had more relatives, and more friends and all sorts of friend's of friends and who all not, all came to sympathise and be with him at this difficult moment. Well, he was still a good host and there were so many more people to feed so he took the butcher aside and pointed him towards the cow. And soon enough there was ample beef on the table for all to eat.
In the evening when everybody had gone and the farmer was sitting alone at the kitchen table shedding a few silent tears he saw the offending mousetrap. He was furious, "Curse the day I got this in the house" he bellowed and taking the mousetrap in his strong bare hands he crushed the contraption into a mangled heap of wires and spring. He then threw it away and went straight to bed.
The mouse saw all this from his little hole and wondered what to make of it If the mousetrap was meant only to kill a mouse and no one else could be bothered with it then how come because of it a snake was dead, a chicken was dead, a pig was dead and so was a cow.
Its because in this lovely land of ours all of us are linked to each other. Their problems are not just their problems, and just because we aren't a part of the problem, and probably would never have those problems ourselves, it doesn't mean that we don't have to try and help them.
The new age mousetraps:
Road Rage
Domestic Violence
Physical Abuse
Drug Abuse
Ozone Hole
Green house gases
Electric bulbs,
Racial discrimination,
Terrorism in the name of religion,
& tonnes of stuff like that.....
