The Talkative Tortoise

The Talkative Tortoise Illustrated by Praveen Ghalay



Once upon a time, a tortoise named Boktom lived near a beautiful lake.

She was surrounded by many good friends. All of her friends love her because she was very kind, but she was very talkative. She used to talk all the time.

One day she saw two crows coming near the lake for water. She watched them drinking water and saw them flying in the air after drinking. Seeing them flying, she also wanted to fly like them. She waited for them to come back so that she could ask them the idea of flying in the air like them.

After two days, the crows came back, and as soon as she saw them, she went near them and said, “Hello friends, can you please tell me how I can fly in the air like you two? I want to fly in the air and see how the world looks”.

Hearing that, the two crows looked at each other and replied, “My dear friend, we are not sure how we can help you, but we will try to come up with an idea tomorrow.”

That whole night she didn’t let her friends sleep, telling them how she would enjoy the view tomorrow. She was so excited and waited for the crows to come.

In the morning, as she expected, the two crows came up with a stick and told him, “We are going to take you with us in the sky, but you cannot talk while we take you up. You have to bite the stick in the middle, and we will hold the edges of the stick. If you talk, you will fall and die”.

Then she promised them that she would not talk.

They began to fly in the air. Seeing the beauty of nature, the tortoise could not control her happiness and said, “Wow! Such a beautiful world”. As soon as she said that, she fell on the ground and died.

Moral: One should speak only at the right moment