The silly young cricket was fun-loving. He used to sing all through the pleasant sunny months of summer and spring. He was short-sighted. He didn’t bother to store food for the rainy season and cold winter. When the earth was covered with ice and snow, he found that he had nothing to eat and his cupboard was empty. There were no flowers nor leaves on the trees.
He grew nervous. Starvation could be seen over his face. Wet with the rain and shivering with cold, the hungry cricket went to an ant to get shelter and food. He made it clear that he would return the borrowed grain the next day. With humility, the miserly ant said that he was surely the servant and friend of the cricket. But as a matter of principle, the ants neither borrow nor lend. He asked why he never bothered to store something for the rainy day. The cricket admitted that he had been careless and foolish. He enjoyed the beauties of summer and sang merrily. The ant then told him bluntly to go and dance all winter and turned the poor cricket out.
‘Prudence is foresight
and farsightedness.’
