Once upon a time, in a tiny village called Cesa, there lived a small ant named Amara. Amara was super hardworking and kind. Every day, she collected tiny pieces of corn, one by one, to save up for the rainy season when food would be hard to find.
In the same village, there was a lizard named Jabari. Jabari was big and strong, but he was also lazy and greedy. Instead of finding his own food, he liked to steal from others. One day, he saw Amara collecting her corn and thought, “Wow, that looks yummy! I want that!”
One sunny morning, Jabari woke up feeling hungry. Instead of hunting for food like he should, he decided to sneak over to Amara’s anthill. He grinned and started digging a tunnel to steal her corn. When he got inside, he grabbed a big handful of corn and said, “Mmm, this is so tasty!”
But Amara was nearby and saw him! She shouted, “Thief! That’s my corn! I worked so hard for it!” Jabari was surprised and dropped some of the corn. He tried to act like he didn’t do anything wrong, but Amara wasn’t fooled.
Amara called her ant friends for help. In seconds, hundreds of ants came out of the anthill. Together, they chased Jabari! He ran as fast as he could, but some ants jumped on him and bit his scaly skin with their tiny jaws. “Ouch! Ouch!” Jabari cried, trying to shake them off.
While running, Jabari tripped over a rock and fell into a muddy puddle. Splash! He was covered in mud from head to toe. All the villagers laughed at him, and even his lizard friends teased him. Jabari felt so embarrassed.
He looked at Amara and said, “I’m really sorry for stealing.” Amara replied, “I forgive you, Jabari. But I hope you learned something today. Stealing is wrong, and hard work is the best way to get what you need.”
Jabari nodded. From that day on, he promised to never steal again. He started working hard to find his own food and learned to be honest and kind, just like Amara.
Moral: Hard work and honesty are the best ways to succeed. Being greedy and lazy only gets you into trouble!
