Animal Justice for the Hyena and the Hare

There was once a Hare who was looking for a job. The Hyena found the Hare a job. "Hare, I have found you a cub-sitting job. You can look after the cubs of Queen Lion while she is out hunting."

The Hare said, "Oh, thank you, Hyena."

The Hyena replied, "No problem! One day, I'll come for my reward. Naturally, you'll have to pay me back, because I found you a job at the finest place of all, the Lion's Place. After all, the Lioness is the Queen of all the animals."

While Lioness went hunting every day, Hare was left to watch over the Lioness's nine cubs.

One day, the Hyena came and said, "I've come for my reward."

The Hare asked, "What do you want?"

The Hyena greedily replied, "I want a cub to eat."

The Hare said, "I can't do that."

The Hyena said, "You have no choice! If you do not give me a cub to eat, I'll have to eat you."

The Hare reluctantly gave the Hyena one cub to eat. That evening, the Lioness came home. She said, as she did every night, "Bring me my cubs, so I might feed them."

Fortunately for the Hare, all the lion cubs looked alike; therefore, the Lioness could not tell them apart. So the Hare brought out the eight cubs that were left, one at a time to feed. After the eight cubs had finished their dinners, the Hare brought out the first cub all over again.

The Hyena continued this practice of demanding a cub to eat, day after day, until there was only one cub left. When the Lioness came home, the Hare had to keep bringing out the same cub, nine times over to be fed. Not too surprisingly, that cub started vomiting.

The Lioness found out what had happened. The Hare said, "It was the Hyena who ate your cubs."

The Lioness said, "I don't believe you! I think you're the one who ate my cubs. So now, I'm going to kill you!"

The Hare thought fast and then said, "Okay, ..., uh, ..., yeah, uh, ..., why don't you tie a rope around my waist? Then I'll go to the forest and say good-bye to all my family and friends. And when I'm done, you can pull me back. After that, you can kill the one who is responsible for the death of your children."

The Lioness agreed. "Okay, I'll give you one hour."

The Hare went into the forest and frantically began to look for the Hyena. Finally, he found him. The Hare knew the Hyena was very greedy. So he said, "Hyena, the Lioness is forcing me to eat some meat that is covered with flies. She said she'd kill me if I did not eat this meat. Do you want to eat this meat?"

The Hyena said, "I don't care if it has a million flies! I'll eat that meat!"

So the Hyena and the Hare exchanged places.

The Lioness pulled on the rope and found the Hyena.

The Hyena said, "Give me the meat even if it has a million flies. I'll eat it!"

The Lioness realized then that the Hare had been telling the truth. It was the Hyena who had killed eight of her nine children. So the Lioness killed the Hyena; thus, Animal Justice was done.