Week 14 Reading A: The Fairy and the Hare

The Fairy and the Hare:

The Hare jumping into the fire.
Source: Hathi Trust 

• Summary:
• In this story, a beautiful hare and this three friends, a monkey, a jackal,  and a water-weasel, vowed to not eat all one day and give the food they found to any poor creature that wonder buy, and so the animals did. First thing the next morning, all the animals headed out in search of food. First, the jackal wandered into an empty hut and found a piece of meat and a jar of curdled milk. The jackal called at three times asking whose meat and milk this was. When no one answered him, he took the meat and milk and fled back into the forest. When he arrived, he praised himself and tomorrow that he would eat what he had found if no one comes his way. The water-weasel came across found some fish buried in the sand. After calling out three times asking whose fish they were, the water-weasel took the fish into the forest with him. He too praised himself and said if no one came by today, that he would eat the fish tomorrow. The monkey climbed the mountains and found some ripe mangos. He too praised himself and said that if no one came by, that he would eat the mangos tomorrow. The hare however, realized that he could not offer grass and he did not have nuts or rice to give, so he decided that if someone in need came by that he would offer himself to eat. Now in the forest live d a fairy who knew everything about every animal in the forest, so she knew the promise that each animals had made and she decided to test them. The fairy went one by one to each of the hare's friends and they offered her the food they had found, but when she reached the hare, he offered himself to eat. The fairy was so touched and when the hare jumped into fake flames that she had made, that she etched a picture of the hare on the moon.
• My ideas:
• I would put this story directly into the hare's perspective. I want to know what made him willing to sacrifice his life so someone could eat. Was he that kind? Had some creature done that for him? I feel like putting this in his perspective would make the story more intense.
• Bibliography: "The Fairy and the Hare" from Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat (Khan). Source.