The Mousetrap

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife, who lived in his house, open a package. “What could it possibly hold?” the mouse wondered with excitement.  But soon he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

He ran out to the farmyard and the mouse yelled out a warning: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head saying “Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and cried to him “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said “I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my back.” So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.

That night a sound was heard throughout the house – like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail had been caught in the trap. The wife bent over and the snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital where she was treated, but returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard and killed the chicken for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s illness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig and made a great meal. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many  people came to her funeral that the farmer had to slaughter the cow to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse watched it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The lesson here is that the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn’t concern you, think again.  Remember that when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We can work together to help one another and in the process help ourselves.