How the Hare Tricked the Other Animals
Xhosa folktale · iintsomi
Kwesukasukela. In a time of great drought, the animals gathered and agreed that they must dig a well together so that all might drink. Every animal came to labour in the heat, scraping at the hard earth, all except the hare, who lounged in the shade and declared the work beneath him. When at last the well was dug and cool water filled it, the animals forbade the lazy hare to drink, since he had not helped. But the hare was cunning. By night he crept to the well, and to mock the guards he muddied the water or smeared the guarding animal with sticky gum. Each night an animal was set to watch, and each night the hare tricked or escaped them, slipping past the leopard, the baboon, and others. At last a clever trap was set, often a tar-like figure or a sticky decoy, and the hare, striking at it in his arrogance, became stuck fast by paw after paw. Caught at dawn, he faced the angry animals. Yet even then, with desperate cleverness, the hare begged not to be thrown into the bramble thicket, pretending to fear it, and when the foolish captors hurled him there to punish him, he bounded away free, for the thicket was his home. Cosu cosu iyaphela.
The lesson: Laziness and deceit may be cleverly hidden for a while, but cunning can save even the trickster, who escapes by knowing his own nature.