Once upon a time, there were two friends—Golu and Molu—who lived in a village. Golu was a thin and athletic boy while Molu was fat. They were best friends and spent most of their time together.
One day, they were travelling together to another village to attend the wedding of their friend’s sister. To get to this village, they had to cross a dense forest. As they were walking together through the forest,they suddenly spotted a wild bear coming towards them. They were frightened. Golu, being skinny, ran to a nearby tree and quickly climbed up as high as he could. Molu, who was fat, could not run fast or climb up a tree. He had presence of mind. He remembered having heard somewhere that bears do not eat dead bodies. So, he lay down on the ground, keeping very still and held his breath pretending to be dead. The bear came close to him, sniffed him from all sides and then, thinking that it was a dead body, walked away. Molu was relieved.
When the bear went away, Golu climbed down from the tree and asked Molu, “My friend, I saw the bear whispering something in your ear. What did he say?”
Molu replied, “Don’t call me your friend. This is what the bear also told me. He warned me to stay away from you as you are not a true friend.”
Golu was ashamed of his conduct. He felt that he was wrong to leave his friend alone in the time of danger. Their friendship was over forever.
The moral of this story is that a friend in need is a friend indeed.
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