Once there lived a tortoise in a small lake amidst a forest. A fox used to visit it daily. Soon both became good friends. They used to have long talks. It was rather unusual for fox and tortoise to be such good friends because they were so different. One day while they were sitting on the banks of the lake, a leopard neared them. Both the friends thought to run back to their home. The leopard pounced on them. The fox could quickly run away. But the tortoise could not reach the lake due to its slow speed. The tortoise didn’t get time to run so it hid in its shell. The leopard tried to tear it off with its teeth n sharp nails. The tortoise shell being hard, he could not succeed. The fox witnessed this. He thought of a plan to save his friend. He said to the leopard from his hiding ‘Dear Leopard, the tortoise shell cannot be broken like this. You can open it if you soak it in water so throw the tortoise in the lake’. The leopard agreed and he threw the tortoise in the lake. The tortoise vanished inside the lake.

Moral of the story : A friend in need is a friend indeed.