There once lived a hare and a tortoise in a forest. The hare was very proud of his speed. Though they were friends, the hare always made fun of tortoise for being very slow.

“Don’t you wish to be as fast as I am? It must be painful to take forever to reach a place,” mocked the hare.

Having heard this insult repeatedly, the tortoise said, “I might be slow, but I always reach the place where I want to go. So, why don’t we have a running race and see who wins?”

The hare laughed, hearing this, “You actually think you can win against me? Let us settle once and for all who is the quickest.”

So, both the hare and the tortoise agreed to race against each other. They called the fox as judge to start the race and to decide on the distance for the race. The fox marked the starting and ending points and said, “Ready, Steady, Go!”

Off went the hare immediately, going out of sight of the tortoise.

When the hare was almost near the finish line, he thought, “The tortoise will take a long time to reach this point. Let me nap so that when I cross the finish line, the tortoise can witness my victory.”

Leaning against the trunk of a tree, the hare slept, enjoying the cool breeze.

In the meantime, the tortoise crawled slowly without any break. “I know hare would have won by now, but I want to complete my race,” thought the tortoise.

After some time, the tortoise finally reached the tree where the Hare was sleeping. Then smiling, he continued walking.

The Hare finally woke up just in time to see the tortoise cross the finish line. The hare realised his over confidence made him lose. After that, he never boasted about his speed ever again.

Author’s note:

Like all Aesop’s Fables this story also has a moral attached to it. “Slow and Steady wins the Race”/ “Over confidence will lead to downfall” are the morals of this story.