Remember being told fables when you were a child? You know, those “stories with a moral” passed down from generation to generation?
“La Abeja que Recapacitó” or, “The Bee that Thought Things Over” by Carlos Carrera is a traditional fable told to sponsored children living in Ecuador. It goes a little something like this…
“The Bee that Thought Things Over”
Everybody’s learned from books, magazines and TV shows that bees are, with no exception, the most hardworking and least spoiled beings in nature. But one day, Little Bee decided to take advantage of the good reputation earned by his species and just do nothing.
He thought,
“What’s the problem with doing nothing, because I’m a bee, and everyone will always believe I’m a hardworking guy?”
So Little Bee removed his yellow work apron and flew out of the beehive showing off his beautiful black- and yellow-striped sweater. He said,
“Oh well, all the others can collect pollen, prepare sweet honey and cover the hive in wax. They won’t miss me and I won’t miss this at all!”
Little Bee turned his back on his job and did nothing but rest and have fun. He flew over the fields of happy flowers just to bug them. When the colorful flowers bored him, he looked for insects, butterflies and even little girls to threaten and scare with his sting.
It seemed to Little Bee that he was having the time of his life, but it didn’t take long until he realized he was doing no good for himself.
Little Bee thought things over and finally understood that to have a life worth living he had to do as his “people” did.
He went back to the beehive, put his tiny yellow apron on and chose to be a hardworking bee like all the others. For all bees are respectable little beings and all of them know that every job well done brings a great reward ahead.
Moral: No one should think they can sleep on their laurels!
Are the fables you heard growing up anything like this one? What fable impacted you as a child?
Fable compiled by Field Communications Specialist, Cecilia Yepez
2 Comments |Add a comment
I like the parable about the deaf frog and another about the donkey that was getting buried in the well. Too long to post but here are the links
http://www.crystal-reflections.com/stories/story_73.htm?vm=r&s=1
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art2251.asp?vm=r&s=1
Most of the fables I remember were about why things were the way they were, rather than moral stories eg: why the elephant has a long trunk. I don’t think they did effect me really, other than to make me think that the theory of evolution sounded like a fable for ‘grown-ups’ when I first learnt about it.