Tortoise used to have a fine head of hair, but one day he went to see his mother-in-law. She fed him porridge, but Tortoise was still hungry.
He snuck into the kitchen and filled his hat with more porridge, putting it on his head. It was so hot!
"I'll be going now," he said.
But his mother-in-law, had messages for his daughter. She talked and talked, and the porridge was SO HOT.
When she finally stopped speaking, Tortoise bowed to leave, and his hat fell off. The porridge spilled, and his mother-in-law saw Tortoise's bald head.
Tortoise ran away, ashamed.
Inspired by: "Why Tortoise is Bald" in West African folktales by Jack Berry, 1991.
Notes: You can read the original story online. It is a Yoruba story from Nigeria. In the original story, Tortoise is accompanied by his friends, but I left them out to keep the story shorter.
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