The statement, ‘You can fool people for a time, but not forever’, is a time-tested maxim/saying. The protagonist in this story gives a fitting reply to those who think that he is gullible and can be easily fooled. The protagonist lived in a hut at the edge of the forest. Once, on a stormy day, one of his friends in the jungle – the elephant – approached him for shelter. It requested him to let him put his trunk inside the hut so that he could prevent it from getting wet in the rain. The man, who sympathized with the elephant, told him that his hut being small, there was only room enough for its trunk and himself. Therefore, he told the elephant to put its trunk in gently.
However, the elephant took the man’* tolerance as a sign of weakness and pushing its head inside the hut, threw the man out in the rain. The man started to grumble, and the animals in the nearby forest gathered there to see what the matter was. There ensued a heated argument between the man and the elephant. On hearing the noise, the lion, the king of the forest, came along. Then it ordered an Enquiry Commission to be set up to examine their claims. Since there was no member from his side in the Commission, the man lost his case and he was asked to build a new hut to suit his needs. The man built another hut, which was forcibly occupied by the rhinoceros. Once again another Commission of Enquiry was appointed and the man got the same judgment. This way the man built several huts one after the other, and all of his huts were forcibly taken over by the animals.
Finally, the man thought over this matter deeply and hit upon a plan. He realized that if he is careful enough he can trap them in their own game. He built a ** and better hut a little distance away. No sooner had the rhinoceros seen it, than he came rushing in, only to find that the elephant had already become an inmate. Then all the other animals came in one by one and finally started fighting for a place inside the hut. While the animals were thus busy fighting, the man set the hut on **** as planned and burnt it to the ground along with the animals. Though the animals fooled the man many times considering his tolerance as a weakness, the man outsmarted them eventually. Thus, this story undoubtedly proves that “you can fool people for a time, but not forever”.
