So many years ago in the animal kingdom, there were famine farm crops did not produce enough food to go around all animals. The little farm produce had been eaten up in a short while. It was devastating that the animals started eating their young ones to keep alive. The reindeer was the first to deliver his young one to be butchered. Everyone ate to their fill.
A few days later, hunger resurfaced and the warthog was next. This was how they took turns to eat their young ones until there was no young animal in the kingdom anymore. The tortoise is the wisest of all the animals who decided to look elsewhere for food. After a day's walks, he got to another land where there was sufficient food but the only condition was to be hit with a heavy log for a tuber of yam. If anyone needs two tubers, he gets two hits of the rod.
The tortoise walked back hungry to the animal kingdom. He was so weak but there was nothing he could do. On his way back, he was accosted by Mr. Rabbit who asked him:
My dear friend tortoise, were gave you been?
Tortoise replied,
In search of food, I am so famished. I found a place where could find food. If you can go with me, our hunger will permanently be solved.
Mr. Rabbit sheepishly followed the tortoise. When they arrived the land of abundant food. The man who was to give them a tuber of yam asked that the one to received the strike for the yam should come in. Then, Tortoise asked Mr. Rabbit to go inside. As soon as Mr. Rabbit entered, the man struck him had and he died instantly. The man from inside passed the tuber to the tortoise who dragged dead Mr. Rabbit out by the tail. Strength from nowhere entered the tortoise as he carried the tuber and the carcass of Mr. Rabbit home. He made yam porridge with rabbit meat. That sustained him for few days until he got hungry again.
Monkey met the tortoise and saw that he was looking chubby and asked what his secret was. Tortoise sweet-mouthed him:
My friend, if you need to how I come about the food, meet me at the footpath that leads to the forest in the evening.
Monkey cannot wait, as soon as it was evening he walked down the footpath that leads to the forest. The tortoise was already there waiting. He said to Monkey:
My friend, we would go for two tubers of yam and two strikes.
Monkey wasn't bothered about what the strike could mean, he was all about the yam tubers.
When they arrived at the land of abundance, the tortoise asked the monkey to enter the cave while the tortoise exclaimed:
Hit for two tubers
As soon as the monkey entered the cave, the old man struck him twice in the skull and he died immediately. Again, the tortoise got the two tubers of yam and the carcass of monkey. For a few weeks, the tortoise had enough to eat.
All the animals in the land look sickly for lack of food except the tortoise. He claimed to all other animals to be the wisest. Just a little while later, hunger came again but no one came to inquest his he had gone about it.
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While the tortoise was walking around the animal kingdom, he came across the duck. Without anyone asking him, he began to blab how he had been able to secure food while all other animals lives in penury. The duck got interested in tortoise's bragging and said:
Tortoise, kindly show me the way, I know you are wise and more exposed than all other animals.
What an opportunity, the tortoise thought.
As usual, they embarked on the journey to the land of abundance. On their way, it began to rain. It rained cats and dogs such that they walked the more slowly on slippery land. So, they arrived at the land of abundance at night. While they knocked at the old man's door and requested three tubers of yam and three hits, the tortoise trying to stay away from the rain moved closer to the door. The old man came to the door and struck the tortoise on his shell three times and he suffered a seriously damaged shell.
To this end, the tortoise shell is broken till this day. And the duck kept looking for where the strike came from by stretching his neck in question also.
Morals
You can fool people, you can become greedy but never forget, you can't get away with it all the time.
The torture has always been the wisest, I love this