The Fox and the Sick Lion

By OH TEIK THEAM

AN old Lion who could no longer hunt for food said to himself one day, “Now I know why I don’t like fast food – because I can’t catch it!” He finally decided to get his meals by artifice. Thinking that his plan was better than letting nature take its curse, he asked a Jackal to let it be known that he was sick and that it would be in the best interest of every animal to visit him and enquire after his health.

The Lion’s first visitor was a Leopard. “Hello, mighty Lion,” the Leopard said. “How do you feel today?”

“As usual, with my paws,” the Lion joked and laughed feebly at his own “prey amble”. “Actually, I’m suffering from jungle flu – it’s making me weaker every day.” And he manufactured a coughing fit.

When the Lion’s feigned coughing continued unabated, the Leopard came nearer to him and patted him on the back, whereupon the Lion grabbed his unsuspecting victim and killed him with a vicious bite on the spot.

“That was an appetising meal on a fantastic chewsday,” the king of the jungle said when his hunger was satiated. “I’m indeed grateful for small fevers – imagined ones, that is!” And he left the leftovers to his friend the Jackal, saying, “I hope you like it – medium roar!”

In the evening a Deer came along, and the Lion invited her into his den. “I hear you are sick,” the Deer said.

“Yes, some vexing problem with the eyes,” said the Lion. “And speaking of eyes, I can tell the age of a deer just by looking closely at the eyes.”

“Really?” said the Deer. “That’s an interesting eye-deer!”

Curious, the cervine creature let the Lion examine her unblinking eyes. A few minutes later the Lion rubbed his stomach in contentment. “She certainly had no time to run for deer life,” he said, roaring triumphantly. “Blinking fool!”

A few days later the Lion received another visitor – a Goat. “What ails you?” the caprine animal asked.

“It’s my lungs,” said the Lion, “but I can’t pinpoint the illness.”

“Do you have trouble breathing?” asked the Goat.

“Of cough.”

“TB or not TB, that is the question,” conjectured the Goat, hoof on horn.

“What did you say?” said the Lion as he cupped his paw against his ear. “This tenacious illness makes me hard of hearing at times.”

The Goat came nearer to the Lion to repeat his words. His action was a fatal mistake, for the Lion killed him quite effortlessly.

The next day a Fox stood on the outside of the Lion’s den at a safe distance. He cordially asked the Lion how he was feeling, and the latter replied, “Not too well. I ate some seafood that tasted shrimp-ly awful. But why do you stand out there in the savage heat? Please come inside so that we can talk further. This isn’t much of a place, but it’s still a home to have pride in.”

“You must think I was born yesterday if you expect me to go inside,” the vulpine quadruped said. “I don’t relish the idea of hearing you say ‘Pleased to eat you’ and dying in your living room.”

“What do you mean?” the Lion asked.

“I notice from the footprints that many visitors have entered your den, but I see no trace of their coming out,” the Fox replied. “The only animal who can enter your den and come out alive is you. I shall have to warn the other animals of your deadly cunning!”