The Good Neighbour

It was a bright Sunday morning. Ginny giraffe and Bob bear, neighbours who had taken to organic farming and living just outside the city, were hurrying towards their fields, which were close to their houses and adjacent to each other.

- Kusum Agarwal

They had to sow seeds for the last cycle of rabi season, and a lot of work was pending. They decided to clean the fields first, hoping to finish their work by noon before it got too hot to work. They soon reached their farms.

Upon arrival, they took one look at the state of their fields and saw pebbles, stones, and overgrown grass scattered everywhere.

“We should collect all the stones in one place and uproot the grass,” Ginny suggested.

“Yes, Ginny, you’re right! Let’s start quickly,” Bob agreed, immediately beginning to uproot the grass.

Bob worked hard, making steady progress collecting stones.

After some time, while taking a short break, he noticed something strange—a large portion of Ginny’s field had cleared up, but his own field didn’t seem to be getting any clearer.

Puzzled, he turned to look at Ginny, only to find her sneakily tossing pebbles, stones, and uprooted grass from her field into Bob’s.

Ginny was clever by nature. She realised that if she gathered all the debris in her own field, she would have a huge pile of rubbish to haul away. So, she secretly threw all the debris into Bob’s field.

Bob was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t even notice—until he caught Ginny in the act.