The Lion and the Mouse

A lion slept in his den. A mouse ran across his face and woke him. The lion caught it under a heavy paw and meant to crush it.

“Spare me,” squeaked the mouse. “Let me go, and one day I will repay you.” The lion laughed at the idea that such a tiny creature could help him, and he opened his paw.

Later hunters spread a net for game. The lion walked into it and roared in rage, tangled in rope. The mouse heard the roar, knew the voice, and hurried over. It gnawed the cords with sharp teeth until the big cat stepped free.

“You laughed when I promised,” said the mouse. “Now you see—even a mouse can help a lion.”

About this fable

This is one of Aesop’s fables, the ancient Greek collection of animal stories, so it is not an Indian tale. The telling here follows V. S. Vernon Jones’s translation of 1912, which has an introduction by G. K. Chesterton and pictures by Arthur Rackham.

Vernon Jones lets the mouse speak the lesson itself: even a mouse can help a lion. When Joseph Jacobs retold the fable in 1894, his hunters tie the captured lion to a tree while they fetch a waggon, and he closes with the moral “Little friends may prove great friends.”

Read the original: V. S. Vernon Jones, Aesop’s Fables (Project Gutenberg #11339, The Lion and the Mouse)

Best for ages 3–5: a very short fable about kindness repaid, easy to act out with one big roar and one tiny squeak.

What changes when the lion is trapped?

The mouse does not become as strong as the lion. Instead, the problem changes: a heavy paw can catch a mouse, but small teeth can cut the ropes that hold a lion. The reversal asks us to notice useful abilities we might overlook. The lion also releases the mouse before he knows he will need help; his mercy is not a calculated purchase of a rescue.

Draw the two rescues

Draw the lion opening his paw beside the mouse cutting the net. In each picture, circle the creature who can choose to help. Finish the sentence “This time, the useful ability is…” for both scenes.

Talk about it

• Why do you think the lion laughed at the mouse’s promise?
• How did the mouse know the lion was in trouble?
• Have you ever helped someone bigger or older than you? What happened?

Related stories

• The Crow and the Pitcher — a small, clever bird solves a big problem all by herself
• The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse — two mouse cousins try each other’s homes and learn what matters
• The Fox and the Grapes — another very short Aesop fable that young children can retell