The Rabbit and the Forest Obstacle Course

 Once upon a time, there was a rabbit family. There were only four rabbits, but they were all kids. Their parents died at the claws of the ferocious lion. Everyday, the oldest of the four went to the forest to find something to eat for his brothers. One day, he went in deeper into the forest than usual. The rabbit heard a loud cheering noise. When he finally went closer, he found a crowd of forest animals doing a competition, he was in great bedlam! The rabbit asked a mouse what was going on.

The mouse answered in a squeaky voice, “Uh, you don’t know about the annual Forest Obstacle Course?”

The rabbit answered, “Well, I don’t. Could you tell me what it is?”

The Mouse said, “Sure! Well the annual Forest Obstacle Course is a competitive round of running through an obstacle course. You root for your own kind. But you don’t have anyone to root for because nobody’s playing in the Olympics for a rabbit. Maybe you could do it!”

The rabbit asked,” I could? Do you think I could do it?”

The mouse squeaked,” Of course! You look pretty muscular and good at hopping. It’s not too late to sign up!”

The rabbit asked,” Is there a prize if you win?”

The mouse squeaked once again,” Oh yes, the prize is whatever you want, it could be a bushel of carrots, a wagon of cheese, or a whole bucket of peanuts…”

     While the mouse was thinking of what the possibilities of the prize could be, the rabbit was actually thinking of trying out! Suddenly the rabbit was full of greed, because if he won, then he wouldn’t have to come to the forest each day to find food, he could be rich with carrots! He hastily ran to the sign up desk to sign up. The person in the front desk gave the rabbit the clothes he had to wear. When he changed, the rabbit ran to the starting line. When the starting flag whooshed down, every animal started to run, the rabbit was eager. He ran so fast that in no time, he was in first place. But soon, he started to lose pace. The rabbit was so full of greed the rabbit started to cheat. When the first course, high-jumping, was getting closer, the rabbit found a stick and threw it at the kangaroo in front of him. The kangaroo tripped and got kicked out of the game. Then rabbit got over the pole and went to the next course. The next course was jumping over the small pond. The rabbit took a big leap and jumped over. When finally the last course came in, running to the finish line, the baby tiger started to catch up. The rabbit started to fill up with greed and started to cheat again! The rabbit hopped faster and took a big jump. Then it hopped on top of the baby tiger. The tiger was so startled, it couldn’t see where it was going. It tripped over a root and slid. The rabbit got off of the tiger right before it hit the ground and was in first place again. Rabbit started to hop and when it reached the finish line, the rabbit saw the very shameful faces of the forest animals. The kangaroo that was disqualified in the first course was crying, and the baby tiger was getting a band-aid because of the scratch he got when he slid on the ground. The rabbit felt terrible. He went over to the two hurt animals and deeply apologized. He then went to the Forest Obstacle Course council and told them the truth of how he cheated and that he didn’t deserve this prize.

     The lonely rabbit started to walk back to his home with nothing to feed his brothers. Suddenly, the forest animals called him. The animals were holding a big bucket of carrots. Then the Forest Obstacle Course Council came and told the rabbit, ” Your are forgiven. It doesn’t matter that you cheated, it matters that you apologized and you were honest.” The rabbit’s eyes was filled with tears.

The moral of this story is that being honest can help people forgive you and that cheating doesn’t lead to any good.