English story for kids

 The kind man and the tiger story
(Favourite story from Cambodia)
 

One day, a man called Sok went into the forest to cut  wood. Before long, he found a tiger lying on the path. He looked more closely at the tiger. He saw that it had fallen asleep on top of a snake’s hole. “A snake has bitten it,” thought Sok.

He was a kind man and he felt sorry for the tiger. He took some medicine from his bag and rubbed it on the tiger’s coat. Straight away, the tiger opened his eyes. He saw
that his beautiful coat was covered with medicine. He was very angry.

“Look what you have done to my coat!” he roared.

“I thought a snake had bitten you,” said Sok. “I didn’t want you to die,”

“Me? Die?” said the tiger. “Look, nothing bit me. I was fast asleep, that’s all. But you’re going to die very soon. I shall eat you for my supper.”

Sok was very frightened. He knelt down on the ground and said, “Please don’t kill me. Please wait until I can find someone in this forest. Then I’ll ask him who is right, if you’re rigt you can killme. If you’re wrong, then let me go.”

The tiger agreed and Sok ran off.

At the end of the path, he met a horse and a cow. He told them the whole story, then he asked, “Can you please help me. Who is right-the tiger or me?

The horse and the cow knew that Sok was right. But they did not say so. “If we say Sok is right,” they said to each other, “the tiger will be very angry. He’ll eat us instead of Sok.”

Now Sok was even faster. Soon he met a hare. He told the hare his story. “Please help me,” he asked.

“Yes. I’ll help you,” the hare replied. “Go back and start talking to the tiger.” The hare then ran back into the forest.

Sok went back to the tiger. Soon the hare come along. “What are you two talking about?” he asked.

The tiger said, “I was asleep. This man covered my beautiful coat with medicine!”

Then Sok said, “I thought a snake had bitten him. I didn’t want him to die.”

“Hmmmmmm,” said the hare. “I want to find out what really happened. Go back to the place where you were sleeping, tiger. If you wake up alive, you can eat Sok for supper.”

The tiger went back to the snake’s hole. He fell asleep on top of it. The snake came out of its hole and bit him.

“this time, don’t rub any medicine on his coat,” said the hare. So the tiger died and Sok was safe