Once, there lived a hare and a tortoise. One day they went on a walk in the woods. There, the tortoise was struggling hard to keep pace with the hare. The hare noticed that the tortoise was lagging behind. He mocked and ridiculed the tortoise for its slow pace. But the tortoise did not mind. With a smile on his face, he said, “You might be swift as a wind, but I can easily beat you in a race.” The hare took this as a ridiculous and impossible statement and agreed to run a race with the tortoise. They went to a fox to be the judge. The fox was the one to decide the course and fix a finishing point.
On the day appointed for the race, there gathered a huge crowd of animals who had come to see the race. The fox signaled to start the race, and both the hare and the tortoise started together. The hare was swift, and within a moment, he was nowhere to be seen. After running for some time he turned back to see whether the tortoise was behind him or not. But the tortoise was nowhere to be seen. It was then when the hare decided to sit down and rest for a while. Having thought so, he lay down under the shade of a huge tree. In no time, he was fast asleep.
The tortoise, on the other hand, never stopped for a moment and went on at a slow but steady pace. On his way, he saw the hare fast asleep by the wayside. He passed by the hare and went on walking straight to the end of the course. On reaching the finish line, the fox who was the judge declared the tortoise as the winner. When the tortoise was declared the winner, the hare was still asleep. After some time, the hare woke up and realized that he has slept for long. He ran as fast as he could, but on nearing the finishing line he saw that the tortoise had reached the end and was comfortably resting after winning the race.
Moral: Slow but steady wins the race.