The Elephant and The Tailor

Once there lived an elephant in a forest. One day the humans came began felling the trees in large number. They caught many animals, like the chimps and took them for shows. Even the elephant was caught.

The elephant was taken to the wood processing factory. The elephant was trained for months, before he was taken to forests for carrying logs from forest to factory. The caretaker of elephant was a humble person. He left the elephant everyday during the late hours of noon for roaming around freely. The elephant was happy to tour the city. He visited the temple to pray and offered flowers to his favorite deity with his trunk. Soon people began to recognize the elephant. They began friendly with the elephant and loved it. They called him 'aapu'.

The lane which lead to the temple, had many small shops. One of the shops had many tailored clothes. It belonged to Nathu tailor.

One day one of the shirts flew away from the shop window on the street. Aapu saw the shirt and brought it back to Nathu. Nathu was very happy and have Aapu a large banana. Appu raised his trunk, shook his big head and thanked Nathu.

Next day, when Appu came he bid hello to Nathu. Nathu happily greeted Aapu. He stroked Appu's trunk lovingly and gave him a banana. Aapu gave him a salute and went on his way to temple. Thus it became a routine. Aapu began coming to Nathu's shop everyday and Nathu gave him banana each day. They became good friends.

Days passed by. The annual temple festival was approaching. People began preparations for the festival. Nathu became every busy with work.

One day, Nathu was very busy and irritated. That day, when Aapu came he did't greeted him. Instead he prickled Aapu's a needle on the elephant's trunk. Aapu was hurt not only by the needle, bug also by the rude behaviour of his friend. However, he did not reacted. He calmly turned away and went back.

Next day, Aapu came to Nathu again. However Nathu was rude again and prickled Aapu's trunk again. Aapu was hurt. He decided to teach Nathu a lesson.

Aapu went up the lane to the temple. He offered flowers to His favorite deity. Then he went to shallow lake behind the temple and scooped his trunk with filthy muddy water. He went to Nathu's shop, who turned his back seeing Aapu. But Aapu was angry and spilled the entire filthy water on Nathu. He gave a loud trumpet in rage and returned.

Nathu realised his mistake. He understood that animals have feelings too and should not be treated badly according to one's bad mood. Next day, Nathu went to the temple, where he met Aapu. He apologized to Aapu and gave him a bunch of ripe bananas. He stroked him lovingly and they became good friends again.