Daily Parable: A Lonely Elephant Walked through the Forest

Elephants are the largest mammals in the ecosystem, although giraffes are the tallest. Elephants carry more weight and are much stronger than other animals.

One day a lonely elephant walked through the forest where many other animals lived. The elephant was looking for friends and wanted to see if any of the other animals could befriend him.

As the elephant walked, he stumbled upon a monkey and proceeded to ask, "Can we be friends, monkey?" He did not get the response he wanted.

The monkey quickly replied, "You are big and can't swing on trees as I do, so I cannot be your friend." The elephant was devastated.

However, he did not give up and continued walking and then saw a rabbit. He proceeded to ask, “Can we be friends, rabbit?” Still, he received a similar response.

The rabbit stared at the elephant long and hard and replied, “You are too big to fit inside my burrow. You cannot be my friend.” The elephant was becoming more heartbroken.

Still, he did not lose hope and soldiered on, and as he walked, he came across a frog. He asked, “Will you be my friend, frog?” Again, he got rejected.

The frog replied, “You are too big and heavy; you cannot jump like me. I am sorry, but you can’t be my friend.” The elephant was becoming less hopeful now.

Nonetheless, he continued and asked the other animals while walking in the forest. He repeatedly received the same answers.

The next day, the elephant witnessed all the other animals in the forest running in fear. He stopped a giraffe and asked what was happening.

The giraffe told the elephant that a tiger was attacking all the other small animals in the wild. The elephant decided to help them and took it upon himself to talk to the tiger.

The elephant approached the tiger and said to him, “Please, sir, leave my friends alone. Do not eat them.” However, his plea fell on deaf ears.

The tiger told him to mind his own business. The elephant became enraged and kicked the tiger and scared him off. After hearing about what the elephant did, the other animals agreed, “You are just the right size to be our friend.”

The moral of this story is that it does not matter how big or small you are; you can be anyone's friend despite your appearance.

If you enjoyed this parable, read up about another whereby a man and a lion were on a journey together and soon argued about their kind.