It is told that in a beautiful forest filled with tall trees and huge plants, there were four small friends: the duck Toote, the rabbit Bebo, the bear Dodo, and the mouse Fofu. The four friends were accustomed to playing together every day. One day the friends decided to build a cabin to play and gather in it, and to make it from brick, straw, and clay.
The four friends began dividing and distributing tasks among themselves until they could build the small cabin. To start this, Fofu suggested that they conduct a draw to distribute the tasks. Bebo’s share was to collect clay from the pond, Toote collected wood and cut it, while Fofu dug in the ground to place the cabin’s foundations, and Dodo’s turn came at the end to put straw on the roof of the cabin.
The work was very hard for the friends, took a long time and great effort, to the point that they despaired of completing the cabin and felt that they would not be able to complete and build the cabin as they wished. Days passed, but they were only able to build a very small part of the cabin after all this fatigue and effort. At that point, the friends decided to stop building.
While the friends were conversing about the cabin, an old turtle passed by them and spoke to them, saying: Why are you frustrated and you have allowed despair to take possession of you? The friends told her their story and that they had become unable to complete the rest of the construction. The turtle said to them: Do not be sad. I will sit with you to eat some food, and we will think together about a solution to this matter.
The old turtle distributed food to the four friends, giving rabbit Bebo grains of rice, bear Dodo a carrot, mouse Fofu meat, and duck Toote a tomato. The friends were amazed at what the turtle did and told her that she should redistribute the food to them again so that the food would match their nature.
The turtle agreed with what they said to her and said to them: This is how you should have done when you started building the cabin. You should have distributed the tasks according to the nature of each of you, not by drawing lots. The bear Dodo should have made and carried the clay, the mouse Fofu could have gnawed and cut the wood into parts, the duck Toote could have put straw on top of the cabin, while the rabbit Bebo could have dug the cabin’s foundations with great skill. Thus the work would have ended quickly.
The friends thought about the old turtle’s words, thanked her for what she said, and decided to redistribute the tasks. Indeed, they completed the construction with utmost skill and rejoiced greatly at what they made.