Once upon a time a leopard and a rabbit lived together in one house. One day the leopard said to the rabbit, "Let's go steal some goats." The rabbit didn't want to go steal goats, but he did want the leopard to go and bring some meat, so he agreed to what the leopard said, although the rabbit had his own plan in mind.
They started out in opposite directions, but as soon as the leopard was out of sight, the rabbit doubled back and followed the leopard who was creeping up the hillside towards a goat which was grazing by itself. The leopard crouched, and then he sprang, grabbing the goat with his claws. At just that moment the rabbit shouted, "Help! Help! The leopard is stealing my goat!" Thinking the goatherd had seen him, the leopard dropped the goat and ran. Once the leopard was gone, the rabbit dragged the goat into some bushes and, after waiting to make sure the leopard wasn't coming back, he dragged the goat all the way home.
"Here's the goat I stole!" shouted the rabbit triumphantly. "Where's your goat, Leopard?"
The leopard had to admit that he had failed to steal a goat, and he was very ashamed about that.
"Don't worry, friend," said the rabbit. "I'll share my goat with you of course. You'll do better next time, I'm sure."
When the meat was nearly cooked the rabbit went outside the house and shouted again. "I think they went this way! Come on! We're going to kill those goat-thieves once and for all!" The leopard thought the goatherd and his friends had followed them, so he ran off into the forest.
By the time the leopard came back the next morning, the rabbit had eaten up all the meat, but he didn't tell the leopard that. Instead he said, "Oh, I am so glad you are safe and sound! The goatherds came and took the roasted goat away. I barely escaped with my life!"
This little drama repeated itself several times, and the leopard was getting thinner and thinner, while the rabbit was getting fatter and fatter. The leopard suspected the rabbit was tricking him somehow, but he could not figure it out.
Then a monkey, who had watched the goings-on from high in a tree, told the leopard what the rabbit was doing. "The rabbit has certainly made a monkey out of you!" chortled the monkey, and then he fled higher up into the trees so the leopard could not catch him.
That evening, the leopard was determined to catch rabbit in the act. When the rabbit went outside the house and shouted like a goatherd chasing a goat-thief, the leopard ran only a little ways into the forest. Then he turned around and came back to find the rabbit sitting down to a meal of roasted goat.
"I CAUGHT YOU!" shouted the leopard, but the rabbit was fast; he ran and jumped into an anthill, disappearing into the large hold at the top and then crouching down inside so that he was just beyond the reach of the leopard's paw. The leopard knew that anthills are made of very hard red earth, so if he tried to dig the rabbit out, he would just break all his claws. "You haven't escaped yet!" he shouted. "I'll fill that hole up with wood, light it on fire, and burn you inside." Then, cackling gleefully, the leopard looked for an animal who could guard the hole while he went to get some grass.
"Crow, do me a favor!" he shouted, seeing a crow in a nearby tree. "Come guard my prisoner in this hole while I go get some firewood."
The crow, however, never does favors for anyone, so he refused. "It's shady here in the tree," he squawked. "I'm not going to go sit in the sun just to guard an anthill. Find someone else!"
Then a monkey came walking along, the very same monkey who had told the leopard about rabbit's tricks to begin with. "Oh, my dear friend," said the leopard, "I am so glad to see you! Come and guard the rabbit whom you helped me to catch. I'm going to go get fireword so that I can burn him inside the anthill. Please make sure he doesn't get away before I come back and set the fire."
"I promise!" said the monkey agreeably, who then sat down on top of the anthill while the leopard ran home to get what he needed to build a fire.
As the monkey sat there he heard the rabbit munching something: munching and crunching, munching and crunching. "Hey, Rabbit!" he said. "What are you eating?"
"What do you think? I'm eating the ants. They are swarming everywhere down here, and they are absolutely delicious," replied the rabbit. "I've never had so much to eat, and they taste so good, very crunchy and absolutely delicious."
"Oh, give me some, please!" said the monkey.
"Of course! As the saying goes: he who eats alone knows no joy. I'm glad to share," replied the rabbit. "Just lean down into the hole, and I'll hand you some."
The monkey leaned down into the hole, and then rabbit threw a handful of dust into his eyes. The monkey sprang back and rolled off the anthill, rubbing his eyes, while the rabbit jumped out of the hole and ran away.
The crow, who was still sitting in the tree near by, laughed and laughed.
"It's not funny, Crow!" shrieked the monkey, still trying to wipe the dust from his eyes. "What am I going to do when the leopard comes back?"
"Don't worry; I'll tell you what to do," the crow told him. "Go get some pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin patch over there" — crow gestured with his wing to a nearby garden — and then get some leaves and twigs too. Stuff the pumpkin-seeds and the twigs and leaves into the hole and when the leopard comes, just tell him you've started getting the fire ready with a little kindling."
The monkey did exactly as the crow told him, and he had just finished stuffing the seeds and twigs and leaves into the hole when the leopard returned.
"I'm helping to set up the fire for you!" the monkey said as soon as he saw leopard.
"Why, thank you, Monkey!" said the leopard, who heaped firewood into the whole and then set it all on fire. It wasn't long before the first pumpkin-seed exploded with a POP.
"What was that?" asked the leopard.
"One of the rabbit's eyes must have exploded," said the monkey solemnly.
Then another seed went POP.
"That's his other eye!" croaked the crow.
By then all the seeds were all getting hot, and they all began popping together, POP POP POP, and the crow burst out laughing, and the monkey swung himself up into the tree beside the crow and also started laughing. The leopard realized that they had tricked somehow and he fumed with rage, but there was nothing he could do. He waited until the fire went out and looked down into the hole.
No rabbit, and no rabbit remains. Instead there were only ashes from the wood and the twigs. The rabbit had escaped.
"This is all your fault, Monkey," growled the leopard, and he tried to jump up into the tree to get the monkey, but the monkey went higher and higher, up on the slender branches that cannot bear the leopard's weight... and to this days, leopards are still chasing monkeys, angry that the monkey let the rabbit escape from the anthill long, long ago.
Samango Monkey by Bernard Dupont at Wikimedia
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