Once upon a time, there was a little, brown mouse. He worked in a field that housed millions of plump, ruby red strawberries with golden seeds. In the spring, the strawberries would bloom beautifully in the bright sun. The little brown mouse had to water, weed, and pick all the strawberries on his own since he lived by himself. On every Saturday, the little brown mouse would load his cart with baskets of his best strawberries, and head to the market by the woods.
One Saturday evening, while the little brown mouse was counting his earnings, he noticed that he was missing one of his baskets, but he didn’t think much of it at the time. Though, throughout the months, the little brown mouse started losing more and more of his baskets of strawberries and his earnings started to sink like the Titanic. The little brown mouse decided he would investigate, so he dressed up in his best sweater made of fine wool, packed his cart with baskets of strawberries, and headed away to the market.
Throughout the day, the little brown mouse got lots of buyers to buy his baskets of strawberries. He made sure to keep a very close watch on the baskets to make sure that none of them got taken. Near the end of the day, the little brown mouse left his strawberry cart to buy a bag of apples. When he was returning to his cart, he noticed a racoon sulking around his cart. The racoon then seized a basket. He scurried into the woods, darting between the trees and running like he was in a race. He dashed behind a tree and devoured the delicious fruits, spraying golden seeds and ruby red juice all over his snow-white snout. ‘My, my, I know where all those baskets of strawberries went,’ thought the little brown mouse to himself, ‘next Saturday, I will catch that thief and make him repay me for what he has done.’ So the little brown mouse packed up his strawberry cart and headed back home to make his plan.
The following Saturday the little brown mouse packed all of his materials into his cart and headed to the market. Once he got there, he set up his trap and hid behind a tree. As soon as the little brown mouse was out of sight, the racoon came bounding out of the woods and up to the unwatched strawberry cart. As soon as he grabbed a basket, the little brown mouse let go of a rope, and a net came tumbling down onto the racoon. The racoon struggled and scratched at the net but couldn’t escape. The little brown mouse reappeared from behind the tree and got face to face with the racoon.
“Why have you stolen my strawberries,” cried the mouse, “I have worked hard to grow and sell them.”
“Let me out,” grumbled the racoon while he popped a strawberry into his mouth.
“No, you will need to come to my strawberry patch and help me tend and sell the strawberries to repay what you have stolen,” answered the little brown mouse.The racoon was about to protest, but his words hesitated to escape his mouth. So, the little brown mouse carefully freed the racoon and they proceeded to the strawberry patch. The racoon didn’t like the strawberry patch at first, but over the weeks he enjoyed picking, watering, and selling them more and more, that when the day came around for the racoon to leave, he happily stayed and worked at the strawberry patch forever since. The moral of the story is to not steal from others.