Once upon a time, there was a hare and a tortoise. They lived in a huge jungle, with other animals like tigers, elephants, deer, and crocodiles. The hare was very fast on his feet. He took part in many races, and always came first, no matter who the opponent was. Over time, his constant victory turned him into a very proud hare. He began to put in lesser effort in the races he took part in because he was winning them all anyway. Now, in the same forest, was a wise tortoise. Unlike the hare, the tortoise was extremely slow. In fact, he was one of the slowest animals in the jungle. He kept observing the hare, and he saw that the hare’s success was getting to his head. So he decided to teach the hare a lesson. He called all the animals of the jungle, including the hare, and openly challenged the hare to the race. When the animals heard this, they all began to laugh. Animals that were faster than the tortoise had lost to the hare. How was the tortoise, which was the slowest animal in the jungle, going to defeat the hare? But they all were curious, and the hare loved a challenge. So he accepted it.
The next day, the hare and the tortoise were all set to begin the race.“On your mark, get ready, and GO!” The monkey of the jungle said, waving a white flag.
The hare took off immediately. The hare kept running and had already covered a distance, but the tortoise was still barely across the starting line. After a while, the hare stopped running and thought to himself. The tortoise was going to take forever to reach the end of the race. It was obvious that the tortoise was going to lose. So the hare decided to take a short nap.
He found a shady, comfortable spot and fell asleep. Meanwhile, the tortoise never gave up. He kept running. By the end of the day, to everyone’s surprise, the tortoise was the winner!
The hare, because of his pride and overconfidence, had lost the race. The moral of this story is, slow and steady wins the race.