Once upon a time, in a big jungle, lived three friends – a crow, a rat, and a turtle. They spent most of their time together.
One day, they were talking near a lake when a deer walked up to them. Upon seeing the deer for the first time in the jungle, the turtle asked, “You seem to be new here. We have never seen you.”
“Yes”, replied the deer. “I lived in the nearby jungle but have no friends, so I came to this jungle searching for friends. Will you be my friends?”
“Yes, of course!” jumped the three friends in joy.
The four of them became very good friends within a short period.
After a few days, they saw a hunter coming toward the jungle.
“Oh no!” said the crow. “What do we do now? The hunter is coming towards us.”
As soon as they saw the hunter approaching them, they fled away to save their lives. The crow flew high and sat on the highest branch of the nearby tree. The deer ran very fast and hid in the bushes. The rat slipped into a small hole nearby.
The poor turtle, however, could not do any of these. He was running slowly, and the hunter saw him and put him in his sack. Even though the hunter was disappointed that he could not catch a bigger animal, he was happy that he had caught something at least.
As soon as the hunter left with the turtle, all three friends came back from their hiding spots and met at one place.
“He took away our friend!” said the crow. “We should do something to save him”, he added.
After thinking for a few minutes, the deer shrieked, “I have a plan!”
He shared his plan with his friends, who readily agreed to implement it.
The crow quickly flew to locate the hunter, and the deer followed him. After some time, he spotted the hunter with the sack in his hand.
The crow signaled the deer, and he quickly overtook the hunter from a different route. He lay down at a little distance on the path, pretending to be dead.
When the hunter saw the deer, he thought, he must be dead, and he left the sack there itself and ran towards the deer to catch it.
Meanwhile, the rat reached the place where the sack was kept, and he quickly tore the sack with his teeth and freed the turtle. After the rat and turtle left, the crow quickly signalled the deer to get up.
As soon as the deer got the signal, he suddenly got up and bolted into the dense forest. The hunter was taken aback as to what had just happened.
He was very sad about losing the deer and returned to the place where he had dropped his sack with a heavy heart. After returning, he found the sack empty, and the turtle was not there anymore.
He realised what had happened and left the forest empty-handed.
After the hunter left, the friends breathed a sigh of relief, and the turtle thanked all of them for saving him.
