The smart Ant and the cockroach

A fairy tale of our present
After the ant ate her lunch, she lay down on the sofa to take her afternoon nap. Before she could close her eyes, there was a loud knock on the door. She opened the door and found the postman handing her a letter. When she read it, she found that it was an invitation to participate in the program “Win a Million if you can”.
On the promised day, the ant sat on a comfortable chair waiting for the first question from the program presenter, Mr. Roach. After he greeted the audience, he said: I present to you Miss Ant, as she is the first contestant today in our successful program. He walked around the studio and then asked the ant:
- Can you introduce yourself to the audience, my beautiful ant?
- introduce what... I do not need to introduce myself. I am an ant who lives a subsistence life and does not need any human help.
The cockroach said with a smile:
- Please applaud the smart ant again. The ant said angrily:
- listen, I do not need applause and these courtesy words. Then the cockroach asked inquiringly:
- What kind of work do you do ant?
- I work as a scout for food for my sister ants, and when I find some, I return and bring an army of ants so they can transport them to the nest and we can all feed on them.
The cockroach said encouragingly:
- Audience, applaud this struggling ant who is working hard to make her sister ants happy.
Here, the ant banged one of its limbs on the table and said angrily:
- I said no need for applause and wasting time, let’s get to the point.
The cockroach lifted a piece of paper he had with him and said:
- My first question to Miss. Ant: “When did the Zanj slave revolution occur in Iraq and what were the reasons for its occurrence?”
- What revolution? Listen dude, you think I am a schoolgirl so you ask me this nonsense? I do not care about revolution and past history.
The cockroach said with a smile:
- This question is to make you prepare for other questions. As for my second question to you, it is historical and religious:
- Who is the prophet and king who spoke to your ancestors and they had so much respect and reverence for him?
The ant stood angry and objected, then said:
- Listen bro, I have nothing to do with these questions. First, May God protects you and your family from evil. Now, please keep us away from these sensitive questions.
- These questions were set by the -dir-ector. What is the sensitivity in this question?
- My beloved, you do not know that talking about these issues causes you to be dragged to the courts, humiliated, and devalued. If these are your questions, then I apologize for this trivial program and go home and prepare a meal for my husband (burning his finger). The cockroach smiled and said: “The -dir-ector asked me to ask you”:
- What is kind of food (burning his finger)? This is the last question for you before you win a million.
- Haraq Asaba’o,´-or-burning his finger, is the food for the poor. They cook dry and leftover bread with spices and pomegranate molasses´-or-citric acid, because pomegranate molasses is very expensive.
The cockroach said, laughing:
You won a million with us today, and you can collect it from the Central Bank of Lebanon.”
The ant stood up and shouted at the cockroach because she felt that she had been deceived:
- By God, if I had known this result, I would not have come to this silly program. The taxi fare to the bank costs more than this amount ….. damn you and your lousy program.
When the audience heard the ant’s words, they applauded it and left the hall, thinking about what she said and thinking about the (burning his finger) supper.

Kalil Chikha is an Industrial Engineer who lives in the U.S. and writes on a wide variety of topics. He published many books in Arabic, such as short stories, literature review and criticism.

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