The bear sat under the mulberry tree feeling tired. Then the fox passed by him and heard him speaking complaining: Cursed be it, what does she think of herself? Let her think I’m a bear, and a bear is a bear. Yes, I’m a bear, and this is…
The fox stopped near him and said: It seems that the lice have been infesting your head, oh bear. The bear woke up and stood up, saying: She told me, oh my friend, that there’s no benefit from me.
The fox commented on the bear’s speech: She is wrong. The bear agreed with the fox’s speech: And this is what I say too. Then the fox said: Winter is coming. The bear opened his mouth, saying: Winter! The fox continued his speech, saying: Snow will cover the forests, and the cold will intensify, and…
The bear stood on his hind legs feeling the loss of his patience: Brrr.
The fox approached the bear then felt his fur, saying: Brrr. The old guard who guards the forest needs a fur coat. When the bear’s eyes opened and he gaped, the fox made a loud noise with his barking. The bear extended his hand then nodded his head for a while, then said: What you say is correct, and he also needs a hat.
At that time, the fox stopped his barking, then fled quickly, saying: Oh my God, it seems that the winter this year will come earlier than its time. I must look for another forest where there’s no cold and snow.
The moral of the story: You must be as clever as the clever ones, as the bear did in his response to the fox, as he wanted to get his fur to make a coat for warmth. And when the fox told him in a non-direct way that his skin would be made into a hat covering for the head; the fox feared for his bad fate, which made him flee quickly from the place, and that was due to the bear’s cleverness in his response to the fox.
From Arab children’s literature by author: Talal Hassan