The Kyang, the Fox, the Wolf and the Hare

The Kyang, the Fox, the Wolf and the Hare

High in a Tibetan valley, where cold winds wandered over stony slopes and the grass grew low and springy, lived a young kiang, a wild donkey with strong legs and sharp hearing.

One spring morning he was grazing peacefully near a slope when he noticed a wolf.

The wolf was hungry. He moved very quietly, hiding behind rocks, and had almost crept close enough.

The kiang understood that it would be hard to run away at once, so he quickly thought of a way to gain time.

“Uncle Wolf!” he called. “Look at me. After the long winter, I am thin, nothing but bones and fur. What kind of meal would I make now?”

The wolf stopped.

“And what do you suggest?”

“Come back in autumn. Over the summer I will eat fresh grass and grow stronger and plumper. Then we shall see who outwits whom.”

The wolf seemed not to hear those last words.

“Very well,” he said. “We will meet here in half a year.”

And he went away.

All summer the kiang grazed in the green meadows and ran along mountain streams. He understood more and more clearly that the wolf would truly return in autumn. So he did not merely grow strong. He also thought about how to save himself.

When autumn came, the wolf set out for their meeting place. Along the road he met a fox.

“Where are you hurrying?” she asked.

“To the kiang. In spring he persuaded me to wait until autumn.”

The fox narrowed her eyes.

“A kiang is large. It may not be easy for you alone. Shall we go together?”

“Let us go,” agreed the wolf.

A little farther on they met a hare.

“Good morning! Where are you heading?” asked the hare cheerfully.

The wolf told him everything.

The hare understood at once that the kiang was in danger. But he did not show it.

“What a business!” he said. “Let me come with you too. Perhaps I will be useful.”

So the three of them reached the valley.

The kiang was already waiting. Over the summer he had grown taller and stronger, and his coat shone in the sunlight.

The wolf licked his lips.

“Now you truly have grown bigger!”

The kiang stepped back.

At that moment the hare hopped forward.

“Wait! If you want to prove who is strongest, let us do it fairly. No teeth and claws. We will have a tug-of-war with a rope.”

The wolf and fox looked at each other.

“What for?” asked the fox.

“Because if the two of you cannot hold one kiang, why attack him at all?” replied the hare.

That pricked their pride.

“Of course we can!” cried the wolf.

Nearby was a shepherds’ camp. The hare borrowed a long, strong rope and returned to the others.

“A large loop will go around the kiang,” he explained. “Wolf and Fox, you hold the other end. I will stand in the middle and give the signal.”

The kiang looked at the hare and understood everything.

“Ready?” asked the hare.

“Ready!” called the wolf and fox together.

“Pull!”

The wolf braced his paws against the ground. The fox leaned backward. At first, the kiang stood still.

“Harder!” encouraged the hare.

The wolf pulled. The fox pulled.

Then the kiang suddenly moved forward.

First at a walk.

Then faster.

Then, thump, thump, thump, he raced through the valley.

The wolf and fox, who had boasted so loudly of their strength, did not even have time to let go of the rope. It dragged them along over the soft autumn grass.

“Stop him!” shouted the wolf.

“You stop him yourself!” answered the fox.

The hare ran alongside, laughing.

“So who was meant to pull whom?”

At last the kiang stopped beside a broad puddle left by a recent rain. The wolf and fox slid forward with a great splash and landed straight in the mud.

The kiang slipped off the rope. The hare quickly untangled it so that no one would be hurt.

The wolf stood up covered in mud. The fox looked no better. Only the tip of her tail remained clean.

“Well?” asked the hare. “Shall we continue the hunt, or is this enough for today?”

The wolf snorted.

“It is enough.”

“And for tomorrow too,” added the fox, wiping her face with her paw.

The kiang looked at them carefully.

“I do not want to be your enemy. But neither will I allow you to mistreat me.”

The wolf and fox nodded silently and went away to dry their fur.

The kiang returned to his grass.

“Thank you, friend,” he said to the hare.

“Do not thank me,” the hare replied with a smile. “Thank their pride. Sometimes it pulls harder than any rope.”

From that day on, whenever the wolf and fox saw the kiang on a slope, they remembered the cold puddle and chose another path.

And for a long time, people in the valley told how a little hare helped a great kiang, not with strength but with cleverness, and how two attackers fell into the very trap they thought belonged to someone else.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨