It was so dark and rainy, a grasshopper trembling because of cold was finding a place to hide itself from rain but it was too dark for it to find one. At last, it made its way climbing up a tree.
“I only can do this. Hope I could find somewhere above”, it thought.
I climbed higher and higher. Later, it went in sparrow nest warm and dry.
“Who?” said the sparrow mother, “Who go in my house? Carefully! Don’t hurt my children”.
“That I am” said the grasshopper, trembling, “grasshopper. Let me stay here a night it is so cold. I promise I will go away in next morning”.
“My house is so small it is not enough space for you to stay in”, said the sparrow mother, “Go away”.
“Pleassse! I can’t move. Just need a place to lay my back on”, insisted the grasshopper.
“OK, but you have to stay outside and take care of your legs not to hurt my children”, said sparrow mother, pitying the grasshopper.
The grasshopper helped itself have a place by little sparrows it shank its claws against its body. Later, it and sparrows fell in sleep.
Suddenly, a deer which stood under their nest roared. The grasshopper was in sleep, thought that it was in its house and started stretching out and
“Crack! Crack! Crack!” the nest of sparrow placed on a branch had been torn by rains and winds and still wasn’t repaired. Now the grasshopper’s claws made it more much damage.
“OMG! We are falling out nest”, screamed sparrow mother.
The grasshopper stretched pushing little sparrows to a side and that made the nest tilt to one side. A little sparrow which was sleeping deeply was fallen out from the nest and dropped into a stream. Sparrow mother fluttered down and up to find its child but the child was brought away by water.
Sad and angry, sparrow mother complained the grasshopper to God. God called grasshopper to come and ask:
“Why do you harm the child?”
“Well, it’s my mistake but I didn’t do it on purpose”, said the grasshopper, “I’m very sorry about it”, grasshopper bowed its head. “I am not a bastard. I mean it’s because the deer which stood under us suddenly roared that startled me and I stretched just because of habit”.
God called deer and told it what happened.
“A sparrow was broken, a little sparrow died and it is because of your shout”, said God.
“It is not my fault”, cried the deer, “I am just sleeping but suddenly a green custard apple fell down on my head and startled me so I roared. It is the fault of tree”
God turned to tree and said:
“Why you let your green fruit fall down on deer’s head that made him startle and roar. Then, an accident occurred. That is your fault, right?”
“Sir, I don’t want my green fruit to fall down but a grub bit it and so that it fell down”, said the tree gently.
The grub was summoned.
“Do you realize your crime? If you didn’t bite the green fruit, I would not have fallen down and so that the accident wouldn’t have happened”, God said.
“It is not my fault:, screamed the grub, “I have full life in dried leaves on ground with delicious food but one day, hen appeared and searched for us. They kill and eat us. Terrible if you see. I was very lucky escaping from them. I climbed up a tree and hid myself at there. Felt very hungry I had to bit green fruit and it fell down. That’s because of the hen. It is their fault”.
The hen was summoned. It didn’t live in that area it lived in other side of river. It was feeding its children, chickens. Because food turned rare, the hen had to made its way to there it promised that it would hatch duck's eggs so that duck brought it to there.
“Where do you come from?” God said, “It is your crime, isn’t it”.
The hen didn’t know how to explain because there was not its place. It chose not to reply. God prisoned it. Its children, they were four females and a male, heard that their mother was prisoned from duck and turned nervous. They insisted the duck to bring them to the other side to meet their mother. Four female went first. They didn’t know how to justify for their mother so they only served her food then turned back. When the male met its mother, its mother told him whole story. After that, the male found the way to God and justified for its mother.
“It is not fair God”, it said, “You shouldn’t prison my mother”.
“Not fair”, cried God, “If your mother didn’t come here just stayed in its place, the grub wouldn’t have bitten fruit and the fruit wouldn’t have fallen down on deer’s head and the deer wouldn’t have roared and you know the grasshopper wouldn’t have stretched. And,” God glared at the chicken, “No accident happened”.
Still polite, the male replied:
“That is why I want to justify for my mother”, “Almost animals, living with people and having no private place, have milk to feed their children but my mother had not. Consequently, she was very hard to feed us and you should know that is very difficult to find food our place. Therefore, she has to come here to find something. It is not complete her fault sir, she was forced to do that”.
God spent awhile thinking he saw what the chicken said was reasonable so God released the hen. They happily found the way back their home.
THE END
"Translator: Hung Nguyen"
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