The Squirrel and the Spider

A hard-working squirrel had, after a great deal of effort, grown a very fine farm. Because he was such a good climber, he had never bothered to make a road into it. He simply travelled there through the trees.

One day, when the harvest was almost ripe, Spider went hunting in that part of the country and came upon Squirrel’s farm. He was delighted by the look of the fields and searched for the road that led into them. There was none. So he went home and told his family all about it. The very next day the whole spider family set out for the farm and began making a road. When it was finished, crafty Spider scattered bits of broken pots along the path, so that it would look as if his children had dropped them while working on the farm.

Then Spider and his family started cutting the ripe corn and carrying it off. Squirrel noticed that someone was robbing his fields, but at first he could not find out who. He decided to keep watch, and sure enough, Spider soon came back to take more.

Squirrel asked him what right he had on these fields. Spider at once asked Squirrel the same question.

“They are my fields,” said Squirrel.

“Oh no, they are mine,” Spider answered.

“I dug them, I sowed them, and I planted them,” said poor Squirrel.

“Then where is your road to them?” asked the cunning Spider.

“I don’t need a road. I come through the trees,” Squirrel replied.

Spider laughed at such an answer and went on using the farm as if it were his own. Squirrel took the matter to court, but the judges ruled that nobody had ever owned a farm without a road leading to it, so the fields must be Spider’s.

Overjoyed, Spider and his family got ready to cut down the rest of the harvest. When it was all cut, they tied it into big bundles and set off for the nearest market to sell it. About halfway there, a terrible storm broke. They had to drop their loads at the side of the road and run for shelter.

When the storm had passed they came back for their bundles. As they got near, they saw a big black crow sitting on them with his wide wings spread out to keep the corn dry. Spider went up to him and thanked him very politely for taking such good care of their property.

“Your property!” said Father Crow. “Whoever heard of anyone leaving bundles of corn by the roadside? Nonsense! These loads are mine.”

And with that he picked them up and flew off with them, leaving Spider and his children to trudge home sad and empty-handed. Their thieving had not done them much good.

Where this story comes from

“The Squirrel and the Spider” is story VIII in West African Folk-Tales by W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair (London: Harrap, 1917). The thief is called simply Spider, and the joke turns on his own court-tested rule: if a farm without a road cannot belong to anyone, then neither can corn left on a roadside.

Barker describes the tales as gathered in the Gold Coast Colony and Southern Ashanti, and reports comparing tellings from different communities. That is his account of the collection, not evidence that all those communities shared a single unchanged tradition.

Read the original: Read the tale in West African Folk-Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 6–8 — a short tale of a thief out-argued by his own argument.

Reading the story closely

Spider first manufactures evidence: the road and broken pots make his claim look plausible. The judges then treat their own expectation—that every farm has a road—as stronger than Squirrel’s explanation of how he works. Crow repeats the mistake in reverse by treating unattended corn as ownerless.

Draw an evidence table with three headings: observed fact, possible explanation and missing information. Put the road, pots and Squirrel’s climbing route in it. Finally ask who still lacks justice after Crow flies away. Spider loses the crop, but the tale never says that Squirrel recovers his farm or harvest.

Think about it

• Why did Squirrel never build a road to his farm?
• How did Spider trick the judges into giving him the fields?
• Why does Crow’s argument resemble Spider’s, and does either argument prove ownership?

More stories like this

• Tit for Tat — a thief loses his loads one day after another
• The Robber and the Old Man — another cheat whose own trick is turned on someone
• Why White Ants Always Harm Man’s Property — Spider tricks Wolf and Leopard