The Whole Farmyard Is At Risk

By Anonymous (One of the World’s Most Prolific Writers)

A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was surprised to discover that it was a rat trap. Retreating to the farmyard, the rat proclaimed the warning; “There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Excuse me, Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The rat turned to the goat and told him, “There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!”

“I am so very sorry, Mr. Rat,” sympathized the goat, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers.”

The rat turned to the cow. She said, “Like wow, Mr. Rat. A rat trap. I am in grave danger. Duh?”

So the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s rat trap alone. That very night, a sound like the sound of a rat trap catching its prey was heard throughout the house. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a poisonous snake whose tail the trap had caught, and the snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone told the farmer to treat the fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient–the chicken.

His wife’s sickness continued, and friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the goat.

The farmer’s wife did not get well. She died, and so many people came to her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when there is a rat trap in the house, the whole farmyard is at risk.