Story About Why the Lion does not eat Fruit? | Tales From AFRICA

This is a famous African story told by Nick Greaves Why the Lion Does not Eat Fruit?

Mbwawa, the jackal, one day discovered the delicious fruit of the thaa tree. But as he sat there enjoying his meal, he heard Lion roaring in the distance. He thought to himself, “Lion sounds hungry. I hope he doesn’t come this way and find all my lovely fruit.” And he began to worry, since Lion, as everyone knows, has a huge appetite and, being the king of Beasts, is entitled to steal anyone’s meal.

Lion did come near, but crafty Mbwawa had thought up a trick to stop Lion from eating his thaa fruit. As soon as Lion was near enough, Mbwawa began to eat the fruit as fast as he could; making sure Lion was watching this display of greed. Suddenly, and then he lay still as if dead. Lion, of course, thought that the fruit must be poisonous, so he went on his way and soon was out of sight.

Now Mbwawa, getting up, remembered where he had seen the skeleton of another jackal lying nearby. So he fetched it and placed it under the thaa tree on the spot where he had pretended to die. Well-satisfied with his clever trick, he went home.

A few weeks later, Lion passed by and saw the thaa tree, laden with juicy-looking fruit. He walked over to the tree but stopped when he saw the pitiful remains of a jackal. Its bones had been scattered by scavengers, and Lion then remembered seeing Mbwawa eating the fruit. He vowed to himself never to touch fruit again.

Since that day, Lion has never eaten the fruit of the thaa tree, or indeed of any other tree. This made the jackal, and all the other small animals of the bush, very happy. Now they could eat as much fruit as they wanted without having to share it with the lion’s enormous appetite.