The Spider and the Fly

The Spider and the Fly

Long ago, when insects still spoke so loudly that even people could hear them, a Spider lived in a warm garden.

He was a wonderful craftsman. Every morning, Spider stretched fine silvery threads between the branches, checked every knot, and felt very proud of his work.

“Look how even this web is!” he told his neighbors. “And this thread is stronger than a rope. This one shines in the sun like a jewel.”

Fly lived nearby.

She was quick, curious, and never stayed in one place for long. Sometimes she circled the flowers, sometimes she peeked into the garden, and sometimes she hurried off as if she had ten important errands to run.

Spider liked Fly very much.

One day, he came over to her favorite leaf… well, of course he did not fly over, because spiders cannot fly. He hurried along a branch on his many little feet and stopped beside her leaf.

“Fly,” he said, “come visit me.”

“Thank you, but I don’t want to,” Fly replied.

Spider was surprised.

“Why not?”

“I don’t feel comfortable among your sticky threads.”

“But I’ll make a special little corner just for you!”

“I still don’t want to.”

Fly said this calmly and flew off to do her own things.

Spider scratched his head with one leg.

“Perhaps she just doesn’t know how lovely my home is,” he decided.

The next morning, Spider found her again.

“Fly! I decorated my web with dewdrops today. Come and see!”

“No, thank you.”

“But you haven’t seen it yet!”

“And I don’t want to.”

“Why do you keep saying no?”

Fly hovered right in front of him.

“Because I don’t want to visit you. Isn’t that enough?”

Spider had no answer.

But the very next day, he came back again.

“Fly, how about today?”

“No.”

The day after that:

“What about today?”

“No.”

And again:

“I made new web steps!”

“Spider, no.”

Fly was starting to get angry.

She did not want to quarrel. She even liked chatting with Spider now and then—when he was not trying to persuade her to visit his home. But for some reason, Spider had decided that if he asked often enough, one day her answer would turn from “no” into “yes” all by itself.

It did not.

One hot morning, Fly decided to tidy her little home beneath a broad leaf.

She washed the floor, wiped down the walls, and placed a jug of cool water by the door to rinse the dust from the step.

She had just begun her work when she heard the familiar voice:

“Fly!”

Fly sighed.

“Spider, I’m busy.”

“I’ll only be a minute!”

“Please don’t come in.”

Spider hurried closer.

“Listen, I’ve thought of something! You don’t have to sit in my web. You can just stand by the entrance. Come on!”

“No.”

“Then I’ll come in and explain it to you myself.”

“Don’t come in.”

But Spider had already put one foot over the threshold.

Fly stepped back.

“I said: don’t come in.”

“But I only…”

And then Fly quickly picked up the jug.

Splash!

Cool water spilled right in front of Spider and splashed all over his feet.

“Hey!” he cried, jumping back. “Why did you do that?”

“I told you three times not to come in.”

“But you could have explained it one more time!”

Fly was so surprised that she even stopped buzzing.

“Spider, I explained it for many days.”

The water was cold and did not hurt him at all, but Spider felt terribly offended.

He shook the droplets from his feet.

“Fine! If you don’t want to be my friend, then from now on we’re enemies!”

“I never said I wanted to be your enemy,” Fly replied. “I only said I didn’t want to visit your web.”

But Spider had already stomped off angrily.

All day, he tangled his threads because he was thinking about their morning quarrel instead of his work.

“She splashed me!” he grumbled.

Then he added, “Though… I really did go in after she asked me not to.”

But a moment later he was angry again.

“Still, she didn’t have to splash me!”

The next morning, Spider stretched a new web right between two branches where Fly often passed.

Fly noticed the shining thread at the very last moment.

“Hey!” she cried, swerving away. “Did you put that here on purpose?”

Spider sat in a corner of his web.

“It’s my choice where I build.”

“And it’s my choice where I fly.”

“Then look more carefully!”

“And you should listen more carefully when someone tells you no!”

And they quarrelled again.

The insect neighbors only shook their heads.

An old Dragonfly, who had seen more gardens than anyone could count, asked Spider:

“Do you know how your quarrel began?”

“With a jug of water!”

“No.”

“Because Fly didn’t want to see my web!”

“No again.”

Spider fell quiet.

Dragonfly continued:

“It began when you decided that her ‘no’ meant ‘ask me again.’”

Spider stared at his web for a long time.

“Couldn’t she have just said it more clearly?”

Dragonfly laughed.

“More clearly than ‘no’?”

Spider had nothing to say.

Meanwhile, Fly was telling her friends about the quarrel, too.

“And then I splashed him with water!”

A little Bee asked:

“Were you trying to scare him?”

Fly thought about it.

“I wanted him to finally stop.”

“Stop?”

“Yes.”

“Did he stop?”

Fly looked at the web between the branches.

“Not for long.”

Days passed.

Spider and Fly hardly spoke anymore. Whenever Fly saw a web, she flew around it. Whenever Spider saw Fly, he sat among his threads and remembered his old hurt feelings.

And so, according to an old Visayan tale, the quarrel between spiders and flies began.

They say that ever since then, flies watch carefully for a fine thread glinting nearby, while spiders sit patiently in their webs.

But the old insects add one more thought to the story.

This long quarrel might never have begun.

Spider only had to do one very simple thing:

Hear the first “no.”

And respect it.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨