One day the hare was getting bored. He decided to challenge the tortoise to a race, thinking it would be fun to tease the tortoise about how slow he was. The tortoise accepted the challenge, and on the day of the race, things happened according to the old fable. The hare slept off in his arrogance, and by the time he awoke and reached the finish line, the tortoise had already won.
The hare was extremely unhappy. He knew he was the faster animal, so the next day he challenged the tortoise again. The tortoise couldn't refuse, of course. As expected, the hare, having learnt his lesson, stuck to the race and won it.
Now the tortoise was the unhappy one, feeling that his hard work had come to nought. He challenged the hare to a third race the next day, which the hare couldn't refuse. The hare started running, thinking that the tortoise was stupid as well as slow, since he couldn't possibly win. But suddenly he was brought to a standstill, and could go no further. He had reached a deep river, and there was no bridge to cross it. He remained stumped at the riverside, while along came the tortoise, who swam across the river, reached the finish line and won the race again.
What was the outcome of this? The hare and the tortoise became friends. On land, one was the powerful one; in the water, it was the other. There wasn't any point in striving against each other.
Life's like that, too.
Story related by my favourite teacher in college.
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