Look Before You Leap

Once, in a country far away, there was a beautiful pond. There were flowers and all sorts of creatures in it. There were swans and ducks and frogs and fish. They lived there very happily.

Then a drought came to the land. Everything dried up. The trees drooped without water. The sky remained a brilliant blue without a raincloud in sight. The pond began to lose its water bit by bit. All the animals in the pond were worried. The swans flew off to find a better pond. The ducks waddled off to see if there was a stream nearby. The fish were very scared because they had now where to go. They thought they will die soon.

There were two frogs who lived in that pond.

“What shall we do?” asked the younger frog.

“We will have to go and find water. Or we will die,” said the older frog.

So they hopped out of the pond and went in search of water. After a while, they found an old well. They hopped to the edge of the well and peered inside.

They could see fresh, clean water there.

They leapt in happily and had their fill of the water. It was a deep cool well.

“Let’s wait here,” said the younger frog happily. “We don’t have to ever leave this place.”

But the older frog was wise. He looked at the sky. He looked at the water in the well. He noticed that there was quite a distance from the water to the top of the well.

He said, “There seems to be no sign of rain at all. Look at the sky. It’s brilliant blue. We must leap out of this well soon.”

“Why?” said the young frog. “It’s nice here. There is water. Let’s just stay.”

“If the drought continues, this water is going to get less and less. Then the distance between the water and the top of the well will be too far for us to jump.”

“Then will we get stuck here?” asked the young frog.

“Yes, and we will have to die without having any way out. That is why it is always good to look before you leap. You must always look far when you do something. And not think only about the present.”

The young frog understood. They both leapt out of the well when they could, and went away.