A hungry snake slithered into a farmer's house, found a bottle of milk, crawled in, and drank the milk. Then it was too fat to get out!
When the farmer saw the snake, he shouted, "Where's the milk? Spit it out, Snake! Then you'll be able to leave the bottle."
"I've been poisoning you people all my life," said the Snake, "and if I come out, I know you'll kill me. It's better to die in here, where at least I have a stomach full of milk."
The snake died in the bottle: that was the lesser of two evils.
Inspired by: "The Hungry Snake" in Ethiopian Folktales collected by Elizabeth Laird (website).
Notes: You can read the original story online. The story was told by Opiew Amwong in the Gambela region of western Ethiopia.
green mamba snake
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