Buzz was a young honey-bee. He had beautiful yellow and dark brown stripes. But he was very dissatisfied. He thought all other stripes were more attractive than his. He wanted more stripes.
Whenever he saw anyone with stripes, he would ask him how he had got so many stripes. And he would tell him some silly story to be fool him. All the animals and the birds found Buzz very funny.
Buzz asked the earthworm in the garden first. The earthworm told him to make a hole in the ground and wriggle in it. “Then you’ll get more stripes!” and he laughed as he wriggled away.
One day, Buzz flew to the zoo. He found a tiger snoozing in the sun. He woke him up to ask him. The tiger was very irritated at being woken up. “Oh, it’s the sun that gives me the stripes. Yellow stripes for the sun, black for the shadows! Now get lost!” growled the tiger.
Buzz found the zebra who was happily grazing in his pen. “Here is someone with beautiful stripes,” thought Buzz. So, he asked the zebra. He looked up irritably. “Didn’t you know?” asked the zebra, “The zoo keeper made a striped coat for me. I take it off at night when I sleep. Shoo!”
The snake was no better when Buzz woke him up to ask about his stripes. “I got some paint because I was looking so dull. I made red and green stripes all over so that I might look great! Am I not beautiful?” said the snake.
Buzz came back home looking very sad. “All the animals were making a fool of me; I’m sure,” he told his mother sadly, “None would tell me how they got stripes.”
“You silly boy!” said his mother lovingly, “You have something in addition to stripes!” “Even the wasps have more stripes!” complained Buzz.
“Yes, they do. But they sting people. So, everyone is frightened of them. People are scared of tigers and zebras and snakes too. They would run away from them! Whereas you can make honey! And everyone loves honey. None of the others have something like this!” “I never thought of that!” said Buzz, “I think I’d better learn from you how to make more honey.” “Come along,” said Mama Bee, “We’ll show all those striped fellows how much better we bees are. While they lie around doing nothing, we’ll make honey!”
