The Old Man and the Snake

Once an old man was riding home from his fields on his donkey.  He arrived at a river.  There was a rock in the middle of the river and on the rock was a big, black snake.  “For the sake of God and your kindness,” cried the snake, “save me, and I’ll be your faithful servant forever.”  The man was a kind-hearted old man who took pity on the snake.  “I will throw you my pipe-bag on a rope,” he said.  “Get into the bag and I’ll pull you across.”

“You are a fool,” brayed the donkey.

“And you are an ass,” said the old man, “shut up.”  He got the pipe-bag from the saddle, took the water pipe out, tied a rope onto the bag’s handle and threw it to the snake.  The snake crawled into the bag and the old man pulled it ashore.  When the snake came out of the bag, it cried: “Yuck, yuck, what a stinky old bag you made me crawl into!  I’ll bite you.”

“But I was kind to you,” said the old man, “don’t be ungrateful.”

“In this world kindness is rewarded with evil,” said the snake.  “You are dumb if you don’t know this.”

“I don’t believe you,” said the old man.

“All right,” said the snake, “let us ask the cow.”  They found a cow wandering around in the pasture and the snake asked: “Cow, what is the reward for kindness in this world?”

“I will tell you,” said the cow with bitterness in her voice.  “As long as I gave my master a calf every year and a pail full of milk every day, he gave me straw to eat and a roof over my head.  But now that I am old and skinny he turned me out and wants to slaughter me.  Thus is the reward for kindness in this world.”

“You heard it,” said the snake to the old man, “now I’ll bite you.”