A tortoise and a hare were pals once upon a time. He challenged the tortoise to a race one day.

The hare assumed he'd win easily because the tortoise was moving so slowly. So he took a snooze as the turtle continued on his way. When the hare awoke, he saw that the tortoise had already arrived at the finish line. To his dismay, the tortoise won the race while he was napping. 

On the day of the race, all the animals of the forest gathered to watch the competition between the hare and the tortoise. Just as they were about to begin the race, the hare mocked the tortoise for accepting the challenge. Further, he also mentioned that soon after he wins the race, the tortoise would be ridiculed by other animals for accepting the dare. The tortoise kept silent and didn’t pay heed to the hare’s words.

The race began at the count of one, two and three! The hare immediately started running and the tortoise started at its usual slow pace. Soon the hare reached a long way ahead almost a few yards from the finish line. He looked back to check if the tortoise was anywhere nearby. However, the tortoise was left far behind and almost could not be seen.

The hare decided to pause and take some rest on the way before he completed the race. He looked around and to his left, he noticed a field of cabbages and carrots. He decided to snack on cabbage and take a short nap so that he would quickly run past the finish line in a fresh mood.

When the hare reached the point where the race ended, all the animals were laughing at him for losing the race to the tortoise. That day, he learnt a lesson that bragging about something doesn’t win you accolades, hence you should never mock others for their own pace.

This is a tale of a tortoise and a hare. The tortoise was mocked for being slow-moving, and the hare challenges it to a race. The hare leaves the tortoise behind and being very confident of its triumph, falls asleep midway. Once he wakes up, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him.