One early morning, Suphea Rabbit was very thirsty so he headed towards a big pond full of water lilies, lotuses and many snails. Once he reached the pond, Suphea Rabbit lowered himself to a good drink of the water.

At the very minute he opened his mouth, a snail on top of a lotus leaf shouted at him, "Brother Rabbit! Why do you drink my water?" Rabbit answered, "This water does not belong to anyone nor to your snail ancestors. I have been drinking this water for years and nobody has ever stopped me. Why do you slow, gnarled snails dare to stop me today?"

The snail was furious at the rabbit for calling his kind slow and gnarled, so he shouted back, "How dare you call us slow and gnarled! Would you dare bet on a race with me for rights to the pond water?"

Hearing this proposal amused Suphea Rabbit. How can a crawling snail beat the racing hops of a rabbit? He replied, "Brother Snail, why are you asking for this bet? Don't you see our long legs?" The snail became even more daring and shouted back, "Come back tomorrow to start the race!" Rabbit responded, "Yes, Brother Snail."

After Rabbit left, Snail thought to himself, "I sure got myself into deep trouble. How can I win a race with a rabbit when I can hardly crawl a few feet at a time?" The snail thought and thought, then he came up with a brilliant idea.

Snail called all his snail brothers and snail sisters to a meeting and told them about the upcoming race with the rabbit in the morning. Then he said to them, "I need you all to place yourselves around the pond but stay invisible. When Rabbit calls out to find my location, the one of you ahead of him should answer his call." All the snails answered, "Yes, Brother Snail".

The next morning, Suphea Rabbit came to the contest walking slowly and lazily because he thought he could easily beat the snail and win the race. When he reached the pond, he yelled, "Brother Snail, are you ready to race?" Snail replied, "Yep, let's go!"

So the two started the race. About one minute later, Suphea Rabbit called out, "Brother snail!" The snail ahead answered "Yep!" Another minute later, Suphea Rabbit called out again, "Brother snail!" Yet another snail ahead of him answered, "Yep!" Rabbit was confused. How can this slow poke beat me?!

So Suphea Rabbit lost this race to the snail and also lost his bet to drink water from the pond.

This is why rabbits never drink water from lakes or ponds. Rabbits only drink morning dew.

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