The Timid Rabbit

The Timid Rabbit

Beneath a tall palm tree, in the cool grass, a little rabbit was dozing.

The day was quiet. The leaves barely stirred, and somewhere high in the treetops monkeys were playing.

The rabbit woke, rolled onto his other side, and suddenly thought:

“What if one day the earth cracks and the whole world falls apart? Where would I go?”

At that very moment, one of the monkeys dropped a large coconut.

THUMP!

The nut crashed to the ground right behind the rabbit.

The rabbit jumped as though a spring had launched him into the air.

“It’s happening!” he cried. “The earth is falling apart!”

And he raced away without even looking back.

Another rabbit met him on the path.

“Why are you running?”

“No time to explain! Save yourself!”

“From what?”

“The earth is falling apart!”

The second rabbit was frightened and ran beside him.

Soon they met three more rabbits.

“What happened?”

“The earth is falling apart!”

They began running too.

Within minutes, a whole crowd of rabbits was racing down the path, raising a cloud of dust.

A deer saw them.

“Why is everyone running?”

“The world is falling apart!”

“Oh no!”

The deer joined them.

Then a fox heard the news. After him came a wild boar. A little farther on, even a great elephant joined the frightened company.

“The earth is cracking! The world is falling apart!” the animals told one another.

By now, no one knew who had actually seen it happen.

Ahead stood a lion. He saw a forest avalanche of paws, tails, and ears rushing toward him and gave a mighty roar.

“STOP!”

The animals halted.

“Where are you all going?”

“The earth is falling apart!” they shouted together.

The lion frowned.

“Who saw it?”

The elephant looked around.

“I didn’t. The fox told me.”

The fox shook his head.

“The deer told me.”

The deer pointed toward the rabbits.

“I heard it from them.”

The lion questioned one rabbit after another.

“Did you see it?”

“No. Someone told me.”

“And you?”

“Someone told me too.”

At last they reached the first rabbit.

“And you?” asked the lion.

The rabbit swallowed.

“I... I heard the earth crack.”

“Where?”

“Beside the palm tree. I was lying underneath it, thinking about what would happen if the world fell apart. Then there was a terrible crash!”

The lion thought for a moment.

“Very well. Show me the place.”

“Go back?” squeaked the rabbit.

“Go back. We’ll check.”

The lion let the rabbit ride on his back, and together they quickly returned to the palm tree.

At first, the rabbit did not want to go close.

“I was lying right here,” he whispered.

The lion carefully examined the ground.

There was not a single crack.

Then he noticed a coconut lying in the grass.

He nudged it with his paw.

“Could this be what made the crash?”

The rabbit slowly came closer. He looked at the coconut. Then he looked at the perfectly solid ground.

His ears turned red with embarrassment.

“It... looks like it.”

“You were frightened. That happens,” said the lion. “But before announcing that the world is falling apart, it helps to look around.”

They returned to the other animals.

“There is no end of the world,” the lion announced. “A coconut fell.”

For several seconds, there was silence.

Then someone snorted. Someone else laughed. Before long, the whole forest was laughing.

The first rabbit smiled too.

“Next time I’ll look first and run second.”

“One more thing,” added the lion. “When someone brings you frightening news, ask: ‘Who actually saw it?’”

From that day on, there were far fewer enormous panics over tiny noises in the forest.

And whenever a coconut fell from a palm with a loud THUMP, the rabbit no longer ran away.

He simply looked up and said:

“Checked. The world is still here.”

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨