Story on Slow and Steady wins the race
Once upon a time, in a dense jungle there lived many animals which stayed happily with each other. They walked, ate, made merry and sat in groups during the day time.
There were elephants, deer, giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, lions, zebras and many more animals. All the animals were thick friends. They were all happy with each other; none was a foe or an enemy.
The jungle was very thick; it had lot of beautiful trees inside it. Lots of flowering plants and fruit bearing trees provided all the animals with sufficient food to eat and make merry. There was also a small pond from where they drew water from.
Suddenly, one day, all of the animals sat under the hot sun talking to each other. They liked sitting in groups and having light talks with the rest of the animals in the jungle.
All of a sudden, the animals decided to have a get together as it had been a very long time since they all made merry with each other.
Among the many friends, there was a hare and a tortoise which in particular seemed to be very close to each other. They loved each other’s company.
Suddenly the hare made a declaration in front of everyone that it thinks that it is the fastest animal in the jungle and nobody could ever beat the hare in a running race.
The animals also exclaimed that the hare was indeed very fast in running and that it could beat any other animal in the jungle. But to everyone’s surprise, they saw the tortoise laughing heartily amidst the crowd of animals.
The hare was completely puzzled. It did not understand why the tortoise had been laughing at its words. The hare was rather too proud of its speed and thought the tortoise was unnecessarily making fun of it.
The hare questioned the tortoise if it really thinks it can beat the hare in a game of running race. To this, the tortoise readily agreed and the tortoise decided to take part in the running race with the hare.
The tortoise explained that it also thinks of the hare as a fast runner, but it did not want to run away from competition and wanted to be a good sport and hence decided to participate.
The competition of running race between the hare and the tortoise became known to the other animals of the jungle and they took the responsibility of organizing the event.
It was decided that the hare and the tortoise ought to run through the streets of the jungle to reach the foot of the hill and whoever makes it first to that spot, would be declared the winner.
The day of the running event came by. All the animals of the jungle gathered at the start point. Soon after, the race began and the hare could be seen jumping and running straight up, as if to reach the finish point within a few seconds.
It ran at such a high speed that everyone thought the race would be over within a few minutes and the hare would emerge as the obvious winner.
But just a few minutes after the hare began running; it felt exhausted and completely tired that it could run no more. It spotted a tree just beside the street and decided to take some rest under the tree shade.
Meanwhile, the tortoise had also started moving gradually at its natural slow speed, maintaining consistency and not getting distracted by the hare’s super speed run.
Below the tree, the hare quickly fell asleep and lost itself in dreams. It did not wake up for a long time. It did not realize that it was part of a running race and slipped into thick sleep.
The tortoise consistently moving in its path came across the sleeping hare and passed by it without any hesitation. Slowly and steadily, it was almost there at the finishing point.
The hare, all of a sudden, got up abruptly only to realize that it had slipped into a thick sleep till now and much of its time was wasted.
It began running at greater speed towards the finish point. At the finish point, the tortoise had reached before the hare and to every animal’s surprise emerged the big winner.
The hare came to the finish point and was totally humbled by what had just happened. It showed its gratitude towards the hare and promised to never ever boast of one’s qualities.
It decided to be a humble player in life and learnt a lesson never to undermine anybody’s capabilities.
Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.
From this story, we realize how small and consistent steps taken in our life help us climb the ladder of success and accomplish our goals one fine day.
The speed with which we move is not so important, but every step carefully chosen to move ahead with consistency allows us to win in the long run.
Feature Image Credit: YouTube
