Aesop Fables – Belling the Cat
This children’s short story called “Belling the car” is a very famous and old tale which talks about how one must not think of something impossible and then celebrate thinking that it can be done easily.
The story
Once upon a time, there lived a family of mice in a large house. There was papa mouse with fat belly, mama mouse with her tight hair bun, brother mouse with his long teeth, sister mouse with her curly hair, baby mouse with its small paws, grandpa mouse with his black cane and grandma mouse with her white hair. There were also 10 neighbour mice.
In this house, this family had an enemy, a very mean cat. The cat used to chase the mice all the time. He would hiss at the mice. The cat would steal their food, set up mouse traps, close the mouse holes and many many more. He was a very bad cat to the mice.
One day, the papa mouse called the entire family and all the neighbour mice for a meeting.
“Hello everyone! I hope everyone has had their tea and slice of cheese. Good, let us sit down”
All the mice sat down holding their tea and cheese.
“We need to find a way to stop the cat”, said Mayor mouse.
“Yes. Yes. He is chasing all of us. We need to stop her!”
The mice gave many ideas!
“Let us kick her out of the house”, said brother mouse.
“She is so much bigger than us. How can we do that”, asked Grandpa mouse.
“Yes. Yes. The idea won’t work”, said all the mice together.
“We need another idea!”
“Let us put her in a cage”, said sister mouse.
“We don’t have a big cage. How can we do that”, asked Grandma Mouse.
“Yes. Yes. The idea won’t work”, said all the mice together.
“We need another idea!”
“Let us scare her with fireworks”, said neighbour mouse.
“We don’t have so many fireworks”, asked mayor mouse.
“Yes. Yes. The idea won’t work”, said all the mice together.
“We need another idea!”
“Let us bring a dog and he’ll scare the cat away”, said sister mouse.
“The dog might scare us too”, said the mayor mouse.
“Yes. Yes. The idea won’t work”, said all the mice together.
“We need another idea!”
They spoke. They talked. Finally baby mouse came up with an idea.
“I have an idea. This will surely work”, baby mouse said loudly.
“What is the idea? What is the idea?” said all the mice together excitedly.
Baby mouse looked around excitedly and said “Let us put a bell around the cat.”
“But why put a bell? Oh, I don’t understand”, said baker mouse.
Baby mouse said, “Whenever the cat comes, we can hear the bell. When there is the sound of the bell, we can easily run away.”
“That is a wonderful idea” said Mayor Mouse.
“Super Idea!” said Sister Mouse.
“Let us bell the cat”, said all the mice together.
“Wait! Wait! There is a problem with this idea.” said Teacher mouse.
“What, teacher mouse? What is the problem?” said all the mice together.
“Who will bell the cat?” she asked.
The moral of the story:
The moral of the belling the cat story is, “It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.”
