The Snail Learns to Run

Once upon a time, there was a snail in the orchard that moved very slowly. One day, it saw the purple grapes on the tree and drooled with desire, but it moved so slowly that the little birds in the tree saw it and laughed at it, saying, “Snail, at your pace, by the time you reach the tree, the grapes will have already rotted away! Don’t bother!” The snail felt very sad hearing this and decided to learn how to run so that it could eat the grapes more quickly.

The snail wanted to find someone to teach it how to run, but who should it turn to? It asked the little swallow, “Who runs the fastest on the ground?” The swallow replied, “The leopard runs the fastest, but by the time you find one, you’ll probably be too old by then. How about you ask the earthworm? They move quite quickly too.” The snail found the earthworm and asked, “Big brother earthworm, can you teach me how to run? I want to learn your speed?” The earthworm agreed and taught the snail how to burrow through the soil. However, with its heavy shell on its back, the snail couldn’t manage to do it and had to give up. The earthworm suggested, “Then you should learn from a snake; snakes move fast as well.” The snail decided to try this but then remembered, “Snakes might eat me; I can’t risk asking them for help.”
Later on, the snail met an ant and thought of learning to run from it. The ant shook its head and said, “Brother snail, I run on two legs; you’re different from me.” Just then, an old snail slowly approached and said, “My child, we snails have always been this fast. But as long as you keep moving forward, you will definitely be able to eat the grapes.” The snail nodded in agreement, stopped thinking about learning to run, and simply focused on crawling towards the grapevine.