Whining & Dining
 
Mosquito spotted Iguana basking near the pond. She flew up to him and said, “Hey, Iguana, I just saw a farmer digging up potatoes that were as big as me!” Iguana was annoyed at being disturbed and snapped, “What’s a mosquito compared to a potato? I’d rather be deaf than hear such nonsense!” And he stuck twigs in his ears and stomped off. When Python saw Iguana pass by, he said a friendly ‘Hello’. Iguana seemed not to hear. “Iguana is angry,” thought Python. “I better hide,” and quickly slithered into Rabbit’s hole.
Rabbit was so startled she jumped out of her burrow and hared away. Crow saw her and cawed loudly in alarm. Monkey heard Crow and leaped from branch to branch, shrieking disaster. Crack! A branch broke under Monkey’s weight. It fell into Owl’s nest, crushing one of her babies. When Owl returned, she was overcome by sorrow and stopped hooting. The Sun did not rise the next day as he depended on Owl’s wake-up call.
Lion summoned all the animals. He asked Owl why she hadn’t woken the Sun.
“Monkey killed my owlet,” she said sadly. “I am in no mood to awaken the Sun.”
When Monkey was questioned, the entire chain of events was revealed. It was Iguana who had caused all the trouble! Iguana, of course, didn’t hear a thing because he still had twigs in his ears. Lion pulled them out, chuckling.
“Now, Iguana, what’s all this? Python says you snubbed him this morning.”
“What! I never…I never even heard him!”stuttered Iguana.“It was Mosquito! She narrated a tall tale that spoiled my whole morning!”
When Owl heard they’d found the culprit, she let out a loud hoot. The Sun rose and the animals cheered.
“That’s better!” said Lion. “But where is Mosquito? She must be punished!” All the animals looked around eagerly. But Mosquito was nowhere to be found. She had been eavesdropping all the while and felt so wretched, she dared not show her face. To this day, she suffers a guilty conscience. She buzzes and whines in people’s ears, even as she dines on their blood: “Zeeee, zeeee…Is everyone still angry with me?”
And an irritated slap is all she gets for an answer!

 
Tiger's Cub
 
A magician was demonstrating his tricks at a country fair, on an open-air stage. He got loud applause when he took out a rabbit from his hat.
Unknown to the magician and the spectators, a tiger was watching the show from behind some bushes, nearby. Later that night, the tiger waylaid the magician as he was going home.
“I saw you pull a rabbit out of your hat,” he said. “Pull out a cub for me!”
“The rabbit was in the bag all the time,” blurted the magician, trembling from head to toe. “I cannot create animals out of thin air!”
“Produce a tiger cub if you know what’s good for you!” snarled the beast.
“All right, all right!” said the magician, thinking fast. “But it’ll take some time. A month at least.”
“I can wait!”
“There’s another thing,” said the magician, a plan forming in his mind. “You’ll have to stay on a diet of milk and rice during the entire period!”
“Milk and rice!”
“Otherwise the trick will not work.”
“All right,” said the tiger, finally. “ I’ll live on milk and rice.”
He went away and returned a month later.
“Now let me have the cub,” he said, in a barely audible voice, his diet having made him extremely weak.
The magician called the whole village to witness the magic trick.
“This is a special show for our guest here,” he announced. “So instead of pulling out a rabbit from my hat I’ll pull out a young member of his family.”
He muttered some mumbo-jumbo, passed his hands over the hat several times, and then with a loud cry plunged his hand into the hat and pulled out a small cuddly animal.
“A kitten!” guffawed the spectators.
The kitten meowed.
The tiger was not amused. He let out a mighty roar, or at least he had intended to roar but in his weakened state the sound that emerged from his mouth was a loud
“MEEEEE-OOOWWW!”
The villagers rocked with laughter. The tiger felt so ashamed that he leapt out of his seat and ran away, and was never seen again.

Safety in Numbers
 
A fly was flying around a web but it seemed reluctant to land, so finally the resident spider poked its head out and invited it in.
“No, thank you,” said the fly. “I was looking for other flies but I don’t see any. I only feel safe in a crowd.”
The fly streaked away. Presently, it came across a large number of flies sitting on a large piece of paper.
“Don’t land!” warned a bee flying past. “ It’s flypaper. All those flies are stuck to it!”
“What nonsense,” retorted the fly. “They’re enjoying themselves! See they’re dancing!!”
“They’re not dancing! They’re trying to free themselves!!” yelled the bee, but the fly wasn’t listening.
It settled on the flypaper, and got stuck.

Moral: ‘Safety in Numbers’ may be a good slogan, but it’s not always true.