A lion was being chased in the forest by a pack of wild dogs. He ran and he ran, till he was exhausted, but the dogs simply kept following him.
The lion came upon a man sitting under a tree and begged him to hide him. “Those wild dogs will kill me. Please hide me somewhere,” he pleaded.
The man had just hidden him among the bushes behind a huge tree, when the pack of wild dogs reached there.
“Have you seen a lion running this way?” they asked.
“Oh, yes! He went that way towards the hill,” replied the man. The dogs ran off towards the hill in pursuit of the lion. The lion waited a while and then came out from hiding. He grabbed the man.
“Hey! What are you doing?” cried the man, “I’ve just saved your life!”
“I plan to eat you!” said the ungrateful lion.
A hare was trotting along and hearing voices he stopped to ask them what was going on.
“This lion wants to eat me, when I’ve just saved him from a pack of wild dogs!” wailed the man.
“But I’m hungry!” retorted the lion.
“I think I can settle this for you,” said the hare, “You go and fetch me a stick from the Gone-Forever-Tree,” he told the man.
The man went off and returned in a while with a stick. “But I couldn’t find the Gone-Forever-Tree,” he said.
“This is not the right one,” said the hare, “Go and find a stick from the Gone-Forever-Tree!” he emphasised.
Once again, the man returned with a stick from another tree. The hare realised he had to deal with an idiot. So this time he said, “This is not the right stick either. If you cannot find the Gone-Forever-Tree, then find the Never-Come-Back Tree and bring a stick.”
The man went off again and once more returned with another stick. The hare turned to the lion and said in a whisper, “This fellow is a fool! I had better go along and show him the tree.”
The lion was a bigger fool, so he allowed them to go. And they had really gone-forever and never-came-back!
