Origin: Ghana

Theme: Work and Greed

One day the squirrel was looking for new places to farm. The squirrel had farmed so much on his current farm that the land was not fertile anymore. The squirrel went to the tops of the trees so that he could see all the land around and found a place that had rich black soil. He started a new farm there. Every morning he went through the tree tops to his farm and then went home every night.

After much hard work, the squirrel had many rows of beautiful leafy corn growing. Because the squirrel traveled through the tree tops he never bothered to build roads or paths to his farms. He just hopped through the trees to the many farms he now had located all around the village.

One day the spider was out looking for food. He had not had any luck hunting and was starving. He knew he must take food home to his family so he ventured a bit farther than usual and came across one of the squirrel’s farms. The corn was ready for harvesting so the spider took some and then rushed home.

That night the spider told his family of the farm that had no path to it and claimed he knew a way they could claim the farm for themselves and they would never be hungry again. The next morning, the spider and his 100 member family set out with machetes and knives and cleared a path to the farm. Then they began harvesting the corn and carrying it back to their home.

The squirrel came back a few days later and noticed that someone had been stealing his corn. He waited in the bushes until the spider returned for a new load of corn. The squirrel jumped out and demanded that the spider give his corn back. The spider stated that he had worked hard and even had a path from the farm to his house. The only way to settle the argument was to take it before King Lion’s court and let him decide who owned the farm.

After hearing both sides, the King Lion declared that the spider was the owner of the farm as he had a path going from his house to the farm. He told the squirrel that everyone could not jump through the treetops and thus many traveled by road or path to get around. The squirrel could do nothing but watch as the spiders harvested the rest of the corn, bundling it in large sacks.

As the spider and his family were carrying the heavy loads back to their house, a terrible storm came up and the spiders piled their bags on one another and headed to an abandoned hut for shelter. When the sun finally came out the spiders rushed to retrieve their sacks of corn. As they approached the pile they noticed a huge black mass over their bundles. It was a giant crow.

Thanking the crow for protecting their corn, the spiders were ready to finish their work.
“You have either a good sense of humor or a great imagination,” said the crow. “This is my corn and I am getting ready to haul it to my home.

The spider explained that they had run to seek shelter from the storm. The crow wondered how anyone could leave their bags of corn on the roadside without keeping an eye on them. The spider realized that he had no chance of winning the battle because the crow was using logic just as he had with the squirrel. The spider and his family stood and watched as the crow gathered up the bags with his large talons and flew off. The spider and his family were left with nothing to show from all their hard work.