Oban's Myths & Legends
The Ungrateful Tiger (continued)
The young man was a very kind person. He found a large tree branch that had fallen on the ground and pushed and pulled it to the side of the deep hole.
"Watch out Mr. Tiger" yelled the young man as he pushed it down inside.
The tiger sprang up the branch and out of the deep hole.
"Ah! that's better" said the tiger pleased to be free.
The young man felt suddenly very nervous, standing next to the large tiger and decided to leave.
"I must be going now. Good-bye Mr. Tiger" he said.
"Not so fast" said the tiger. "I'm going to eat you."
"But, but, you said you'd be grateful if I helped you" stammered the young man.
"I am grateful" said the tiger. "But it was humans who dug that hole to trap me and since you're a human I am going to eat you."
"That's not fair" cried the young man.
"I'm a tiger and that's what tigers do. Eat people" growled the tiger.
"I helped you and now you're going to eat me just because I'm human" said the young man. "I think we should ask some one else to judge if that's fair or not."
The tiger agreed and they went to look for someone to act as a judge.
They found an Ox and told him the story. "I think it's fair for the tiger to eat you" said the Ox. "Humans treat us Oxen very badly. We're made to work all day and when you want to, you kill us and eat us."
The tiger moved closer to the young man, who quickly yelled "Let's make it two out of three."
The tiger agreed and they went to ask the biggest tree in the forest. "I think it's fair for the tiger to eat you. You humans chop us down whenever you want to and set fire to the forest and burn us."
The tiger looked pleased and showed his big teeth as he smiled at the young man.
The young man was so frightened his legs began to shake. He saw a hare hopping along. "Please Mr. Hare, help judge if Mr. Tiger should eat me."
The hare listened to their story then said "Before I can judge I must see exactly what happened."
They all went to the deep hole where the young man had rescued the tiger.
"Now show me exactly where you were" the hare said to the tiger. Anxious to hurry up and eat the young man, the tiger jumped down into the hole.
"Was this branch in the hole?" asked the hare.
"No it wasn't" answered the tiger. The young man and the hare pulled the branch out.
"My judgment is that it's not fair for you to eat the young man" said the hare. "Just because it was humans who dug the hole doesn't make it fair for you to eat him. You should have been grateful for his help."
The hare hopped away and the young man hurried off to the village leaving the ungrateful tiger howling in the deep hole.
The End
