THE FUNNY CHAMELEON

 

Once in a garden, behind a garden grove, lived a chameleon. He loved changing colours to camouflage himself. In front of him stood a statue of a laughing Buddha, it seemed to be forever laughing at him. But the chameleon was too proud a fellow and thought it was the best creature in the garden, even better than the rabbit, crow, rooster, hedgehog, slow tortoise or even a human.

The laughing Buddha laughed and said to the funny chameleon, “What if you could change yourself into different animals instead of colours?” The chameleon thought for a second and tried to imagine if he had the beak of a crow to collect sticks for his nest, and prickly spines like the back of a hedgehog, ears like a rabbit, or even a carapace like the slow tortoise even maybe with hands of a human to hold an umbrella to shelter him from the rain. Wouldn’t he be a laughing stock! And wouldn’t the Buddha also laugh at him. And so the chameleon started to appreciate the different animals that lived in the garden. They too seemed to like him very much!