The beautiful rabbit Simsimah is a good-hearted rabbit who loves her friends from the forest inhabitants. One day, Simsimah went out searching for food for her little children. She wandered through the forest, right and left. During her usual wandering like every day, she heard a voice coming close to her, crying for help: Help… let someone help me… save me.
Simsimah stopped a little to determine the source of the sound, then continued her way toward the small bushes a few meters away. As soon as she moved them aside, she found a small lion cub stuck in a hunters’ net. Simsimah thought a little: What if I saved him, then he became a lion, grew up, and tried to catch me to eat me? Simsimah the rabbit thought a lot and was terrified by the idea that the cub would grow up and eat her, so she decided to leave him and depart.
Simsimah was about to turn and leave, but she stopped again after the small lion cub cried, weeping intensely and begging her not to leave him stuck in the hunters’ net like that. He said to her: Please don’t leave me here with them in their grip and custody. Simsimah’s heart softened greatly with the small lion cub’s crying, and she said: I will save him, and let what will be.
Simsimah approached the net and began to gnaw it carefully until she was able to make a small opening in it. She took the small lion cub out of his confinement and saved him from the hunters’ grip. Then she ran to the winds before the small lion cub could even direct a word of thanks to her for her deed!
Years passed, and Simsimah became an old rabbit, large in size and slow in movement. One day, while wandering in the forest, she was surprised to find a wolf standing before her with treacherous eyes. She was terrified and stood not knowing what to do. However, she gathered her strength and ran toward her home, but her extreme slowness with the heaviness of her body made her attempt clearly destined for failure. Indeed, the wolf accelerated behind her, caught her, and grabbed her.
Simsimah began to weep and cry intensely, for she knew she was doomed without fail. Suddenly, without preamble, Simsimah heard a thunderous voice coming from among the trees, ordering the wolf to leave her. She looked with tears filling her eyes and found a large lion, the owner of the voice, who had come out from among the trees. Indeed, the wolf left her in great fear and fled from before the lion.
After the wolf ran and fled from before the lion, Simsimah looked fearfully at the lion and said to him: Come, prepare yourself and eat me, for I am fat and slow in pace. I won’t be able to resist you or escape from you. The lion smiled involuntarily and said to her that he didn’t want to eat her but rather wanted to thank her, for she was the one who saved his life from the hunters’ hands. Simsimah looked at him with astonishment and amazement.
She asked him: How did you save his life?! He told her that he was that small lion cub that had fallen into the hunters’ net several years ago, and she didn’t give him the chance to thank her after he came out from among the nets he was stuck in. Now, God Almighty has willed that I meet you again to thank you and have the honor to save you as you saved me from my unknown fate. The lion approached the rabbit Simsimah, kissed her hand, thanked her again affectionately, and departed.
Simsimah stood astonished, not believing what had happened to her. She remembered this cub and thought how he had become a strong, large lion. Simsimah walked back to her home, talking to herself that indeed the reward for goodness is only goodness, and whoever plants good will have good returned to them, and will harvest only good.