“Ahhhh,” Bonnie sighed. He could smell the sweetness of the scrumptious fruits as he sat on the lush green grass watching the rest of the forest animals happily harvest the fresh, colorful fruits. Today was harvest day. To him, it was the best day of the year. It had been a hard winter, and the whole forest was counting the days until they could eat the delicious fruits. He just had to wait a few more hours. For he knew the the food was forbidden fruit, until the annual feast.
Bonnie had always been a leader. Encouraging the rest of the animals, and helping them through their problems had just come naturally to him. It was hard trying to remain the calm, and being the example the animals looked up to when everyone was freaking out about how much food they had left. Today was a huge relief for him.
On the other side of the forest the sly fox was thinking of only himself. He couldn’t stop imagining taking all of the fruit for himself, and spending his days slowly enjoying all of the food alone. He thought of the other forest animals as dumb, easy to fool. Taking their food would be a piece of cake. As long as that “pesky” rabbit Bonnie didn’t get in his way. Bonnie and the fox had never gotten along. The fox would always scare the other animals, then Bonnie would have to comfort them. He thought Bonnie was as pesky as a fly buzzing around his head.
That night, all of the animals headed toward the town square to have a feast, celebrating harvest day as they did every year. As the whole town eagerly sat down at the long table, then Bonnie said a speech. “As you all know, today is harvest day. The day where we fill our bellies with crisp fruit and sweet nuts, and the day we are reassured of another bountiful year. To the harvest, and it’s harvesters!” Everyone cheered chipperly.
“Bring out the food, I am so hungry I could eat a horse!” shouted one of the town’s folk. The servers went to get the food, but came back empty handed.
“Where is the food,”Bonnie asked confused.
“We don’t know, it appears that someone has stolen all of the food!” the servers told Bonnie. “We will count who is here, and figure out who is not. The person gone is probably the thief.” Suggested the servers.
“Ok, get to it,” commanded Bonnie as the servers rushed back to the kitchen. Bonnie went back to the table to distract the hungry animals. Only a few minutes later, the servers ran in and whispered to Bonnie. “The only person not here is Baxter the fox.”
“Why is that not a surprise?” exclaimed Bonnie. “He is always up to something. Come with me, we are all going to Baxter’s house to have a word.” He announced. About ten minutes later, they arrived at Baxter’s tree house. As they knocked on the door, the old tree moaned loudly. Inside the fox was lazily lying on the coach, devouring the fresh food. “Hurry up Baxter, you are a pig, eating the fruit without us!” Yelled the head server. The fox was alarmed, he didn’t think the town’s folk would figure out he stole the food, in time to stop him from eating all of it.
“Um, don’t come in, I am cleaning the house.” lied the fox
“We know you stole the food, and we are coming in to get it back!” Yelled the animals. Seconds later, the police force knocked down the door.
“Put your hands behind your back!” commanded an officer. The fox then went to court. He pleaded innocent, but the whole town knew he wasn’t
“You are hereby sentenced to leave this town, and never come back” Announced the judge. “If only you had simply shared the food, we would not be here. Thieves are not welcomed in this town. We hope you learn your lesson.” That night, as the fox packed his things, and slowly left the town, the rest of the animals finally celebrated the harvest with the feast. Baxter had learned his lesson. He found a home just outside the town, and lived a lonely fox for the rest of his life. If only he had made wiser decisions.
The moral of the story is that there are consequences for your actions.