Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Once upon a time there were 2 friends, a tortoise and a hare. The whole jungle was aware about their brotherhood and how they stuck together with each other no matter what. One fine day, when they were discussing about their respective speed, the hare made fun of the tortoise for being slower. Now, it is a well known fact that tortoises generally have a hard shell which makes it difficult for them to walk. But the hare continued to make fun of him.

The tortoise got very angry and asked him to prove it. The hare, in turn, challenged the tortoise to run a race with him. Both of them agreed upon the date and time. The news was taken over to the king of the jungle, the lion. He chose a referee and announced the commencement of preparations. The entire jungle was excited as it was the first time that the two brothers were competing with each other. Days before the race, the hare went around talking high about himself whereas on the other hand, the tortoise practiced diligently. The night before the race, the tortoise slept on time, to be energetic the other day, whereas the hare continued to dream about him winning and how obvious it was that he needed no preparations. The wait was over, the tickets were completely sold out and the crowd was cheerful.

Both the contestants stood ready on the starting line and the race was supposed to end at a stretch of one kilometre. The whistle blew and both started running at their own pace. The hare covered half the distance while the tortoise could only cover half of what the hare had covered. The overconfident hare thought of taking a nap and thought that by the time the tortoise would come near him, he would wake up and cover the rest of the distance. After some time, the hare was woken up by the sound of hooting and whistling, the tortoise had won.

Therefore, the moral of the story is, “Confidence is good, but overconfidence always sinks the ship”.