Children's Business Review

Don’t Undervalue The Importance Of Idleness

• 

“What are you doing here?” Aris exclaimed upon seeing Clara walking towards his house one afternoon following school. 

Clara, normally a welcome visitor, was surprised by Aris’ comment.

“I didn’t know that it wasn’t a good time to visit,” she blurted out. “It’s just that I wanted to see you; I’m sorry, I can go,” she continued by way of explanation. 

Upon realizing that he had upset Clara, Aris was very sorry indeed. “Now come here and sit down,” he instructed his bear friend, “It’s not that you’re not welcome. Quite the opposite. It’s just that I didn’t expect to see you today, that’s all.” 

You see, Aris was surprised by Clara’s visit because he was aware that the following day, Clara had a very important examination at school. As Clara was near the top of her class, she stood a good chance at obtaining the highest overall result. This would mean that Clara would not only get a certificate of achievement but that she would also be the recipient of a very large and very sought-after jar of honey, made by the most selective bees from the forest’s most exclusive and rarest flower varieties. 

Aris was also aware that Clara’s success was not assured as there were several eager and diligent classmates who, with a combination of hard work and good luck, had a chance of surpassing Clara.  

“I’m always happy to have you call on me,” Aris explained, “but shouldn’t you be at home getting ready for tomorrow’s examination? I understand that you’re rather close to having the highest score.”

Clara, still a little upset, was somewhat defiant with her response. “It’s such a nice day. I thought I would visit friends, go for a quick swim and then complete my revision this evening. If I really need to, I suppose I could probably work through the night.” 

Cautiously, as not to upset his friend any more than he had already unintentionally done, Aris offered some advice. “Perhaps working through the night, or putting off your revision until later isn’t the best approach you might take. You’ll understand if you let me tell you a story about an old friend of mine,” Aris continued. “He’s a rather interesting character and a great storyteller…”

******

Foxes are one of the cleverest animals that you are likely to come across and are renowned, with good reason, for being cunning. Now that I think about it, I’ve seldom come across a fox who couldn’t, by word or deed, get him or herself out of a tricky situation. Anyway….one particularly clever fox, who I’ve grown to know well, told me the following story of how his cunning and cleverness were once put to the test by the most unlikely of challengers.

 Alex, the fox who told me this story, has a small but cozy den ideally situated, if you are a fox that is, within a short distance of several farms, a small river and the edge of a forest. Much of a fox’s reputation for cleverness stems from the fact that they are really quite remarkable with respect to their ability to catch, or in some cases steal, a wide variety of things to eat including small forest creatures, farm animals, insects, reptiles and fish.  

One evening, Alex decided that the next day he would put himself to the test and, in the course of one single day, attempt to catch food from a farm, the river and the forest. 

Alex’s first stop the following morning was to a nearby farm, specifically its henhouse. Understandably, a henhouse can be a very dangerous place to be found, particularly if you are a fox. With this in mind, Alex arrived at the doors to the henhouse long before the sun had even considered rising in the sky. 

Within minutes, Alex deciphered the trick behind the lock mechanism installed on the henhouse’s door by a farmer (who was particularly interested in keeping would-be chicken-thieves out). After that, all that was required was for Alex to sneak over to a sleeping chick and, in his most convincing mother-hen voice, persuade her to crawl under the covers where it was nice, warm and cozy. What the sleeping chick did not realize was that rather than crawling under the covers, she had wriggled her way into Alex’s sack, after which time she was quickly whisked out of the henhouse and was on her way to the river with Alex.

Alex had his mind set on catching a juicy salamander while at the river and knowing that salamanders like to warm themselves on rocks in the early morning, Alex crept to the tall grasses at the water’s edge and he waited, and he waited and he waited some more.  After what seemed like forever, a group of salamanders made their appearance, each finding a warm flat rock to sun themselves on. As some salamanders drifted off to sleep, others stood guard as there were rumours in the salamander community of a fox with a taste for salamanders.  

Aware of the fact that one of the things that a salamander fears most is being gobbled up by a heron, Alex quietly gathered sticks, leaves and grasses and assembled a rather convincing model of a heron. Alex attached his creation to the tip of a long branch and smiled at his handiwork. Following this, Alex nimbly climbed a small tree and held his heron model above the dozing salamanders and those salamanders standing guard.

Just as Alex planned, his fake heron almost completely blocked the sun that was warming the salamanders below. Within seconds, several salamanders rang the alarm as it seemed to them, by the shadow cast on them by Alex’s model, that a heron was swooping in to catch his prey. As they scampered about in every direction, Alex deftly leapt from his branch, snapped up a salamander in his mouth and placed it quickly in his sack along with the chick he had previously captured. 

At this point, Alex was growing tired of his day’s activities however he remained insistent that he prove to himself that in one day, he could catch food from the farm, the river and the forest. 

By the time he made it into the forest, it was late afternoon and the only thing that Alex could find to catch were mice. This was unfortunate for Alex because, unlike the chick or the salamander, catching a mouse requires a lot of running about until an unlucky mouse is eventually confined to some corner where he or she cannot escape. 

As Alex was already tired, it took much longer than usual for him to catch a mouse, and, to be completely honest, Alex was much clumsier at doing so than he would normally be. Nevertheless, Alex was eventually on his way back to his den, carrying a chick, salamander and mouse in his sack as evidence of his accomplishments that day.     

Once home, Alex emptied his sack and spoke to his captives, “With the capture of you baby chick, from the farm, you  Ms. Salamander, from the river and you Mr. Mouse, from the forest, I have proven myself to be a very cunning, clever and capable fox. ” 

“Perhaps you aren’t quite as clever as you think,” replied the mouse. “Why don’t you let us try to gain our freedom by outsmarting you?”

Intrigued by this challenge, Alex asked the mouse to explain how the chick, mouse and salamander could hope to prove themselves to be more clever and cunning than himself. 

“I propose,” began the mouse, “that instead of eating us tonight, you wait until tomorrow morning at which time we will have a battle of wits. At sunrise, we will each put a riddle to you. If you can answer our riddle correctly, we are yours to do with as you want. If, however, you fail to find the correct answer, you must, on your honour as a fox, let us return home.” 

Now you must understand that foxes aren’t used to being challenged, especially by those creatures that they’ve caught. “I accept your challenge,” answered Alex after some consideration. “It’s not often that I get a chance to prove my cleverness so often in two days!” 

 “You’ve simply delayed our execution,” whispered the salamander to the mouse. “How can we possibly hope to outwit a fox?”

In response to the salamander’s question, the mouse drew both his fellow captives aside and provided them with details of his plan to gain their freedom. 

Despite the late hour, the mouse, salamander and chick started posing questions to Alex about the extent of his cunning and cleverness. In fact, throughout the entire night, Alex wasn’t able to get a minute’s rest and instead spent his time reliving tales of his finest moments of brilliance to what seemed to be, and was by definition, a captive audience. 

Eventually dawn approached, bringing with it the time for the prisoner’s challenge. The chick began with her riddle for Alex, “What can go up and come down without moving?”  

“I must admit, you’ve stumped me,” Alex eventually admitted in between a couple of very deep yawns. “Tell me, what can go up and come down without moving ?” 

“The temperature,” replied the chick with a smile. Quickly wishing the salamander and the mouse the very best of luck, he scampered off towards the henhouse. 

Following the chick’s departure, the salamander posed her riddle to Alex, “What is smaller than an ant’s mouth?”

Once again, Alex found himself at a loss. I can’t seem to focus my mind, Alex thought to himself and within minutes admitted his defeat to the salamander. “Ok, Ms. Salamander, I admit that you’ve bested me, what is smaller than an ant’s mouth?”

“The answer is simple,” replied the salamander with a twinkle in her eye. “It’s what an ant eats that is smaller than its mouth.” With a quiet word of encouragement to the mouse, the salamander left Alex’s den and started on her way back to the river. 

“I’m ready for my final riddle,” Alex declared to the mouse. “While I’m not sure why I couldn’t answer the first two, I’m sure I’ll be able to answer yours.” 

With a grin on his face, the mouse presented the following riddle to Alex, “The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?” 

Minutes passed in silence, during which time Alex’s expression demonstrated his increasing annoyance. 

Finally, after what seemed to be an immeasurable time, Alex admitted defeat. “I have no idea what the answer to your riddle is.” The mouse let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief. 

Alex continued, “I’m rather surprised that the three of you were able to outwit me not once, but three times! However did you manage that?” 

“While I won’t provide an answer to the second question on your mind,” replied the mouse, “I can provide you with the answer to the riddle I posed. The thing which, the more of them you take, the more you leave behind, is most certainly your footsteps.”

“Of course it is!” responded Alex, “Be on your way, and be glad that this morning my cleverness seems to have left me.”

And so the last of Alex’s captives left his den safe and sound, not exactly the result that Alex had planned-for when he set out a day earlier.  

For several minutes Alex sat and questioned himself, How was I outsmarted this morning? Those riddles shouldn’t have been that difficult for me to answer… You won’t be surprised to learn that Alex didn’t puzzle-over things for too long; unable to reach a conclusion, Alex let fatigue overcome him and he drifted off to sleep. 

******

Clara smiled at Aris, “I’ve got some revision to do, can I visit you some other time?”

“Of course little bear,” Aris responded kindly and he watched her walk down the path towards home. It wasn’t many days later, when Aris happened to be looking towards that very same path, that he saw a very happy bear walking towards him carrying what looked like a certificate and a big jar of honey.