got this from another group I liked this & wanted to pass it on ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 7:31 AM Subject: Something to Ponder "The Rat Trap" A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a packag. What food might it contain? He was aghast to discover that it was a rat trap! Retreating to the farmyard, the rat proclaimed the warning, "There's a rat trap in the house! There's a rat trap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Rat, I can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me; I can't be bothered by it." The rat turned to the pig and told him, "There is a rat trap in the house." "I'm so very sorry, Mr. Rat," sympathized the pig, "but there's nothing I can think of to do about it. Surely someone else will step in to help." The rat turned to the cow, who replied, "Like wow, Mr. Rat, a mouse trap; like I'm in grave danger, duh?" So the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected to face the farmer's rat trap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a rat trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she didn't see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. The wife returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. His wife's sickness continued. Friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat. So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it doesn't concern you, remember that when the least of us are threatened, we're all at risk. By the way, what did ever happen to that mouse that was asking for the help? The End -author unknown