This is a story I used to hear a lot as a child. From this story I learnt that we may not be stronger than our opponent but determination can move mountains. And also to never underestimate myself for my power lies on my will.

 

Fierce dry winds blew on the rocky mountains of Chile. On those mountains in a cave lived a mother goat with her ten children. There was neither food nor water nearby. Mother Goat had to come all the way down to the foothills to get sweet green grass and water for children. Mother Goat used to often bring her children down to the clear stream for bathing and drinking water. One day, a big bad wolf spotted the kids but he dare not approach for he was afraid of the Mother Goat and her enormous antlers. From then on, every day the big bad wolf used to hide behind a bush, salivate and watch Mother Goat and her children. Mother Goat had learnt about the presence of this wolf. So, she cautioned her children asked them not to come along and instead stay in the cave. She asked her eldest son to latch the door and not to open it to anyone except her.

Few days went like this. The children fastened the door tightly until their mother came with food. Meanwhile, all these days the wolf hid behind the bush but could see no trace of the children. Day by day his greed turned into a hungry wrath. He could wait no more for the children to come down to the stream. He followed Mother Goat uphill all the way to her cave. He hid behind a boulder and heard Mother Goat calling out to her children, ‘children, I am your mother; I have brought fresh food for you’. The door opened and she went inside.

The next day, early morning, Mother Goat set out to collect food. The wolf had hidden the whole night behind the boulder for the mother goat to leave. The children had bolted the door and were playing inside. This is when they heard a knock and a husky voice calling out, ‘children, I am your mother; I have brought fresh food for you’. The kids were sure that this voice is not of their mother so they kept silent. The wolf then banged the door hard a few times but of no use. Furious he left. The kids narrated to their mother the whole incident when she returned. She was happy with the children but worried about the wolf. The next few days the wolf spent chalking out a plan. He tried to break the door but futile effort so he again pretended to be their mother. This time the youngest boy said, ‘you cannot be our mother. She has a sweet melodious voice and you have a husky grumpy voice. You are a bad bad wolf!’

He needed to sweeten his voice. He started cracking his brains a way out of this mess. Suddenly an idea occurred to him. He decided to eat the sweet alluvial soil by the river to sweeten his voice. Next day, at dawn he filled himself heavily with the soil to sweeten his voice and started his journey upwards. But his full stomach had made his hiking hard. By the time he reached the cave it was near eve and he was all worked up. He called out to the kids in the sweet voice and the kids mistook him as their mother and did the blunder of opening the door. The wolf burst in and started swallowing up the kids. He was so worried that the Mother Goat would arrive any minute that he even did not chew the kids. He just gobbled them up. Only the youngest one got saved as he hid behind the cylinders. The wolf then hurried his way back downhill.

Later on when Mother Goat arrived she was shocked to see the disaster. She started calling out to her children but none responded. Finally, the youngest child came out from his hiding and told his mother what had happened. She grabbed her little one and went to the foothills in search of the wolf. She found the wolf in deep sleep on the brook bank. He had a huge stomach and his snore echoed in the breeze.

Slowly Mother Goat approached the wolf. She cut open his belly and one by one her children started jumping out. The children were very happy to see their mother. She asked all her children to bring her lime stones from the river bank. As the children brought the pebbles she started filling the empty stomach of the wolf with them and then stitched it up. She gathered all her children and went back to her cave.

The lime stones had started absorbing all the fluids from the wolf’s body. The wolf woke up and started drinking water. But no matter how much he drank his thirst could not be quenched. The more his throat dried, the more his stomach grew big. The big bad wolf was punished with death.

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