Once upon a time there lived a bunny. He borrowed a rope from the elephant. And the bunny had also borrowed a rope from the hippo. Whenever he met the elephant or the hippo, they asked him for their rope. "When are you going to give me my rope back?" This annoyed the bunny and he came up with a plan. The next day, he took one of the two ropes around his shoulder and made his way to the elephant. "Here, take the rope, I'm giving it back to you." With quick steps he disappeared, ran to the hippo and unrolled the rope. He gave the hippo the other end of the rope and said: "Here, take the rope. I'm giving it back to you." Then he hopped away happily. Both the hippo and the elephant followed the rope. They ran through the bush until they stood opposite each other in the middle of the rope. They looked at each other in amazement. "You? The rabbit owes me a rope. He gave me this one back."

"He told me that too," replied the elephant. "What a scoundrel. I'll forbid him to come into the forest ever again."

"And I'll forbid him to come to the waterhole and drink. What a rascal," decided the hippo.

The bunny had overheard the two of them from a bush and heard everything. Where would he drink if he was no longer allowed to go to the waterhole and where would he hide if he could no longer go into the forest? He hopped quietly away. At the edge of the forest, he found the skin of a gazelle. When he heard the elephant coming, he crawled into the hide and made it wiggle as if the gazelle was still alive. He let out a loud moan as he did so. The elephant approached and asked: "You poor gazelle. Tell me, what happened to you? Who did this to you?"

The rabbit spoke out of his fur in a disguised voice: "I annoyed the rabbit and then he hurt me so badly with one word that I now have to die."

"Oh, who would have thought the bunny was so dangerous. If you see him again, tell him he can come back into the forest." With these words, the elephant turned around and disappeared as quickly as he could. When he could no longer hear the elephant's trampling, the bunny went to the waterhole with the gazelle's fur over his head. He let the fur shake and moaned loudly. The hippo appeared and called out: "What's the matter, you poor gazelle?"

"I teased the bunny and then he hurt me so badly with one word that I have to die now," complained the bunny from the gazelle's fur.

"The bunny did this to you? I didn't think he was so powerful. If you see him again, tell him he can come back to the waterhole," replied the hippo, dived into the water and disappeared. The bunny, however, slipped out of his fur, cleaned his pelt and hopped away happily.

Märchen der Malinke, Sudan, Fassung Anina Meile, nach: C. Monteil, Contes Soudanais, Paris 1905, unter dem Titel: Le lièvre, l’éléphant et l’ Hyppoptameenglische Fassung Lysander Jaenike ©Mutabor Märchenstiftung