Several years ago, there was a forest which was home to several happy animals. In the forest, there was a hare who was resting under a tree. He got an intuition of doom and thought, what will happen if the earth will break. All of a sudden, a weird striking sound was heard. He took no time and thought that the earth has started breaking. He jumped from the tree and ran madly without even looking at the direction.

While he was running through the forest, another hare saw him and asked what was the matter of the haste. The hare told him that the earth is breaking. Upon listening this, the second hare started running too and was so fast that he overtook the first hare. As they were crossing the forest, both of them shouted to other hares, “Run! The earth is breaking!”

Before long, thousands of hares started running across the forest. On seeing this, other animals got frightened and got the news. The rumour spread like a fire and soon all the animals joined the race. With animals running through the forest and panicking in different cries of fear, there was chaos all around.

A lion observed all this happening and ran down the hill to stop the animals. He shouted at the running animals to stop them and positioned himself in front of the mass. A parrot screamed that the earth is breaking up and this is the reason why everyone is running to save their lives. The lion asked the parrot, who told them that the earth is breaking up, the parrot said that he heard it from the monkeys.

Upon asking the monkeys, it was observed that they heard it from the tigers. When the tigers were asked about it, they said that they heard it from the elephants. The elephants told that they got the news from the buffaloes, and the buffaloes told that the hares informed them that the earth is breaking up. Finally, the hare who started the trouble was caught.

The lion asked the hare why did he think that the earth is breaking up. Trembling with fear, the hare stated that he heard a cracking with his own ears while he was resting on a tree. The lion examined the matter carefully and eventually, came to know that the sound was caused when a large coconut fell from a tree on a huge pile of rocks, leading to a minor landslide.

The lion asked all the animals to go back to their homes as the earth was absolutely safe. He also advised them to check a rumour before acting on it.

Moral of the Story : Always check the legitimacy of a rumour, before acting on it.