Mouse & the Trap

an anecdote about an old farmer living in his farm with his
animals. A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife
open a package.
What food might this contain? He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a
mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell
this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be
bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the sheep and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house."
The sheep sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is
nothing I can do about it but pray for you. Be assured you are in my prayers. But
honestly, I am little affected by it."
The mouse turned to the cow and pleaded for help. She said, "Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry
for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's
mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - like the sound of
mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it
was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she
returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his
hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her
around the clock. To feed them, the farmer slaughtered the sheep.
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral;
the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.