Folktale:

Taking what does not belong to you is theft and it is greatly discouraged. No one sees a person who is fond of taking other people's property and gives him a thumbs up. People tend to avoid those who are recognized as thieves.

Like I've always said and keeps saying, African folktales aim at using captivating fictional stories to teach people morals. Not just African folktales but world folktales. There is a popular tale in my locality about theft. This tale was told using animals as characters. I guess animals and inanimate characters are mostly used in other to capture the attention of children.

The main character of our tale today is a goat. The goat was a wild animal who made friends with the sly turtle. His family and friends kicked against this friendship because the turtle had a bad reputation. He was a great deceiver as well as a thief. He had the history of bringing doom to animals that dared make friends with him. He was simply a bad influence.

The goat was too stubborn to listen to his family. He continued to be friends with the turtle. Besides the turtle had promised to make the goat's life more fun and enjoyable.

Of all the animals in the kingdom, the turtle was the most fresh. Even though there was a hardship in the kingdom, he was never affected by it. the things that attracted the goat to the turtle. He wanted to get the turtles secret for remaining everfresh even in the face of hardship. The turtle promised to take him to places where he would feed without paying or without working for the food.

The turtle began to take the goat to people's farm where they would eat and run away if the owner of the farm approaches. The goat was having the time of his life. He soon began to look fresh. Fresher than other goats.

One day, the turtle decided to take the goat to a farmers yam barn. There was a little hole in the barn through which they entered. When they got to the barn, the Farmer was not around. The goat began to eat some here. Each time he raised his head, she would notice that the turtle was always eat a little bit and go out to the entrance hole. He will then come back to continue eating. The goat did not think much of this. He never knew that the turtle was always going to check if the hole could still size him after eating. The unsuspecting goat continued to eat until his stomach was about to burst.

Soon the owner of the barn came home. He discovered some movements in the barn and decided to check it out. He had always had the problem of animals eating off his farm produce. He was lucky to have found them today. As he made to open the barn door, the turtle ran out through the hole. the goat who had eaten too much could not fit through the hole. His stomach was too big. As he was still struggling with the tiny hole, the camera caught up with him and used a rope to leash him to a pole.

The repentant goat begged to be freed, what's the former paid no attention to him. He vowed to never let a go to go back home to his family. As a punishment, he began to feed the goats grass. From that moment onwards, goat became a domesticated animal against his will.

The turtle that had introduced the goat into leading such a bad life abandoned him. He went back to the animal kingdom where he planned to continue deceiving with animals.

so you see why it is important to always listen to the advice given to us by our family and friends. They always know what is best for us and try to put our interest first, but it is left for us to work with their instructions and advice. The gods met with his doom because he was too stubborn to listen.

Also we should not let people deceive us. You should be wise enough to know who we need friends with and who we shouldn't make friends with.

All images from unsplash

Thanks for reading 💖