PARABLE: The mouse and the mousetrap

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall one day to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" The mouse pondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning :"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" 

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, 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 mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it."
 
The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
 
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap.... Alone. . . 

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it but it was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap.
 
The snake lashed out and bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. But when she returned home from hospital she still had a fever. And as everyone knows, you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup.

So the farmer went out and took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient, the chicken and killed it. But his wife's sickness continued. So the friends and neighbours then came to sit with her around the clock. 
To feed them, well the farmer then went out and butchered the pig. But alas, the farmer's wife did not get well...She died.

With so many people then coming for her funeral, the farmer then went out and had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon..

And so the mouse looked upon all that had some to pass from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, remember this...

When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.."

- The mouse