The Mouse Who Thought He Was Very Clever.

In a little village in south India, there lived a little mouse who had a long tail. Now the mouse, who was called Moosh, used to wonder why his tail was longer than the other mice. Being a very vain mouse, Moosh was pretty sure that it meant something special but he simply couldn’t figure out why his tail was longer.
The mouse elders in his village, who were wise (you had to be wise if you could live long enough to be old, because all the mice were usually promptly eaten up by the cats in the village!) used to tell him, “Moosh, don’t be so vain, some mice have long tails, some have short tails, it doesn’t mean anything much you know..”
“When you are something as small as a mouse, its better that you don’t bring much attention to yourself!” they would say shaking their gray heads.
But Moosh would flourish his tail and declare pompously, “A fine long tail like this has to be something special. You old mice don’t know anything”.
He would spend his time grooming his long tail and thinking about why it was long. Then one morning, a fanciful idea struck him. Maybe his tail was so long because he was so clever. His brain obviously was too big to fit in his head and therefore his tail must be storing all that extra brain! The more he thought about this, the more he liked the idea and the more probable it seemed. By the time it was evening, Moosh was convinced that his tail was full of his extra brains. He carefully took his tail and instead of letting it drag around on the ground behind him, wrapped it around his neck. He then walked along jauntily through the village.
All the mice who saw him were amazed, “What’s got into Moosh? Has he been in the sun too long? Or did he eat some spoilt mangoes?”
But Moosh just looked down at them with his nose high up in the air, “Its something you mice of inferior intelligence will not understand. My brain is too big to be stored in my head, that’s why my tail is so long; to store all that extra brains”.
The other mice didn’t know what to do. Was this indeed true? Was Moosh so clever? Some of the younger ones got very excited and started yelling in their tiny voices, “Hurray for our Moosh, the cleverest mouse in the whole world. Moosh, Moosh. Moosh, our leader!”
Two of the mice ran and got two banana leaves and held it above Moosh and chanted, “Hail our new leader Moosh! Hail, hail!”
Moosh was reveling in all this new found attention.
“Why not”, he thought. “If I am the cleverest mouse, I deserve to be the leader of these ignorant other mice. They are so lucky to have me to lead them!”
“Tell all the other mice, that I am their leader from now on.” He commanded.
Moosh then walked grandly to a small hill near the village. His tail was wrapped around his neck, his steps slow and stately and his head high up in the air.
“This will be my court from now on”, he declared to all the mice around him. The other mice hadn’t seen anything like this in their lives. They believed every word that Moosh told them.
“All the other mice should bring half of what they find as food to me from today. Because I have bigger brains, I need more food than any of you.”
So, from that day onwards, Moosh lived like a king among the mice. Everyday, all the other mice would bring him food – roast nuts from Vasu’s snack shop, chicken pieces from Moosa’s ‘Hotel de Paris’, fresh tapioca from Georgekutty’s plantation.
The elders just shook their grey heads in resignation and ignored everything.
The days rolled on, Moosh reveled in his new role. Life was easy, all he had to do was impart his wisdom to a few ignorant mice. Food was plentiful, there were dozens of young mice to run at his beck and call and the small hill where he lived was like a palace now (by mice standards).

As time passed, Moosh started getting more and more fanciful ideas. Perhaps, he was not just the cleverest mouse in the world, but the cleverest animal ever! The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became, “Of course, he had to be the cleverest animal in the world, was there anybody else like him?”. His manner became grander and grander, he wore a piece of silk cloth as a robe and his tail was braided with pieces of coloured thread.

One day, he called for a meeting of his subjects, “I am the cleverest animal in the world. You all are the most fortunate beings in this earth, to have me as your ruler.” The other mice oohed and aahed in awe, “Moosh is not just the cleverest mouse, but the cleverest animal of them all! How lucky we are!!”

Moosh continued, “I wish to extend my rule to the other animals, starting with the elephants! An elephant will make a good transport for me.”
“Go find an elephant”, he ordered two of the mice.
The two mice scampered away squeaking to find the elephant.
They were back soon, “Oh, Great Ruler, we have found your elephant, he is at the riverside and sleeping”
“Alright, good job, I shall go now and capture him. Come with me”
Moosh and the rest of the mice moved to the riverside in a stately procession. All the time the other mice were shouting, “Hail Moosh, our great ruler, the cleverest animal in the world. Hail Moosh!!”

Soon, they reached the riverside. The elephant was there indeed, he was big with enormous tusks and fast asleep. The other mice were afraid of the elephant, but Moosh said “It is just a stupid elephant, watch how I capture him”

Moosh took off his royal robes and crept up to the elephant without a sound. The elephant was fast asleep, half in the water and half outside. His trunk was on the dry land away from the water. Moosh had an idea, he crept near the trunk and came to the opening at its end. It looked just like a cave! Moosh slowly crept inside the elephant’s trunk, his idea was to go right up the trunk and bite as hard as he could. He would then let go only if the elephant promised to become his servant.

He crept up slowly up the trunk, his long tail slithering behind. Meanwhile, the elephant was getting a bit disturbed with all that movement in his trunk.

Moosh was almost three-fourths of his way up, the most sensitive area of the trunk was near the top of the trunk… Moosh inched forward.. his heart was pounding and his tail twitched from side to side with nervousness. He was almost there, just a few inches more… his chest was hammering like an engine and his tail twitched violently from side to side.

The elephant had been feeling something disturbing his trunk for sometime…something itchy, something tickly… something so… aaahh, ahhhh, aaahhhhhh, ahhhh, AAAAHHH, AHHHHCHOOOOOOO!!!
The elephant erupted in one giant elephantine SNEEZE!!
Moosh came rocketing out of the trunk like a bullet fired from a gun! There was a big rock by the side of the river and Moosh got dashed on to it. He was dead as a door-nail.

The elephant, now with his nose clear, went back contently to sleep. The rest of the mice were lost without Moosh, and ran back to their village. Happy to be ordinary but alive!