Once upon a time, a peasant on his way home heard a weak voice calling for help!
He looked round, walked about a bit and then realised that the sound was coming from beneath a large boulder.
He asked greatly puzzled, “Who’s that calling?”
And a voice replied, “It’s me. The rock rolled down over my hole and I am shut in. No way out, I’m going to die. Please help me. Move the boulder.”
The peasant then asked, “But who are you?”
“I’m a poor snake,” came the reply.
“A snake? But if I let you out you will bite me.”
“No, no, I promise, I won’t. Get me out, please!” the snake pleaded and cried.
The peasant took pity and he shifted the boulder…And out of the hole popped a snake which darted towards the peasant and tried to bite him.
The man jumped back, “Why did you do that?”
The snake replied, “Because every good deed is rewarded by an evil one. Don’t you know that simple natural rule?”
“No, I don’t. I don’t think that’s so,” said the peasant angrily protested.
“Alright,” said the snake.
“Let’s go and ask someone. If we come across someone who thinks as you do, you win, but if people say I’m right, then I shall bite you. Agreed?” the snake challenged.
“Agreed,” said the peasant, and off they went.
A little while later, they met an old lame horse, thin and covered in scratches, with a mangy mane and a dirty tail. It looked miserable.
The peasant spoke to him, “Listen, friend. If someone does a good deed, what does he get as his reward?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the horse replied, “A bad deed. Behold me! I served my master faithfully for years and now when I’m old, he has left me to die of starvation! It is a bad world and a bad deed it deserves.”
At these words, the snake turned to the peasant and hissed, “Did you hear that? I shall bite you now?”
But the man exclaimed, “Wait! One opinion isn’t enough! We must ask some others too.”
“Brother!” spoke the snake. “Very well, let’s look for someone else, but I’am right and I’ll get the bite!”
So, leaving the horse behind, the pair went ahead looking for someone else.
They met a sheep which, at the peasant’s question, said, “A good deed is always repaid with a bad deed. Look at me…I always follow my master and never complain. I obey him all the time and what does he do? He shears my fleece in winter, so I freeze in the cold. And he makes me keep the wool in the summer, to make me melt in the heat!”
“Get ready,” said the snake,”I’m about to bite you!”
But the peasant said, “Please! We’ve had the first round, and the second one as well, now let’s play the deciding round. If I’m proved wrong at the third question, then I’ll let you bite me.”
The snake accepted.
On they went, and in the wood, the peasant caught sight of a fox.
Suddenly he had an idea. With an excuse, he left the snake on the road and ran into the wood to speak to the fox.
“Listen, do you too think that a good deed is always rewarded by a bad one?”
“Of course!” replied the fox.
Then the man pleaded, “Well, listen, I’m going to ask you the same question in front of a snake. If you say that one good deed is rewarded by another good deed, I’ll give you a present of a piglet, a lamb or a goose. How’s that?”
“Good,” said the fox. “I will buy that.”
The peasant went back to the snake after fixing the deal.
“I saw a fox over there,” he said. “As you know, foxes are wise and clever. Let’s go, what she thinks about it.”
A little while later they asked the fox the same question and the fox replied as had been agreed, “A good deed is always rewarded with another good deed, but,” she went on, “why do you ask me that question?
“Because this snake, that I helped to escape from a hole blocked by a boulder, wants to bite me,” replied the peasant.
The fox looked at the snake and said, “A snake can manage to slither in or out of a hole under a boulder without any help. Can’t it?”
“But it was a big boulder,” the snake protested, “That was blocking the entrance to my pit.”
“I don’t believe you!”
“Oh, don’t you? Well come and see then,” said the snake, setting out for his hole with the fox and the peasant. Pointing to the boulder, he said, “See? That boulder fell just there,” and he pointed to the the hole mouth.
But the fox shook her head, “A big snake like you couldn’t get into such a little hole,” she said.
Annoyed, the snake retorted, “Don’t you think so?” and slid swiftly into the hole.
The fox shouted, “Quick, man ! Shut him in!”
And the peasant rolled the boulder back across the mouth of the hole, imprisoning the snake.
“Wow, fox,” said the peasant happily, “now that was a good deed! You got rid of that wicked snake for me! Thanks a lot.”
“Oh, it was nothing,” replied the fox adding, “but don’t forget that piglet, the lamb and the goose you promised me.”
“No, I won’t. Come to my farm this evening and you shall have them,” said the man. On that happy note, they parted. That same evening, the fox went to the farm, but the peasant appeared with two snarling dogs and a gun, shouting, “Get out of here, you killer beast, if you want to stay alive!”
The fox trotted away, sad and disappointed, muttering, “And they say I’m cunning! That peasant is the cunning one. Well, well, that poor snake was probably right, good deeds are repaid with bad deeds,” and off she slunked.
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