It was the middle of a heavy rainy season. All the animals in the forest were taking shelter from the heavy rains.
The old wolf was hungry because he could not find any suitable animals to hunt and eat.
A few days ago he saw a tusker quietly drinking water from the river. If he was younger, he could have tried to get at least some elephant flesh. But, he knew he was too weak and too old to even try to think of attacking an elephant.
Instead of going deep into the forest and try to catch his prey, the wolf started wandering along the bottom of the ravine; looking for any small animals such as rabbits or squirrels, hiding among the rocks; sheltering from the heavy downpour.
In the distance he could see the narrow old stone bridge spanning across the ravine.
He watched expectantly to see whether any animal was trying to cross the bridge, so that he could stalk and hunt them; if they were small and weak.
Suddenly he noticed there was movement in the forest foliage near the bridge.
He saw a ram approaching the bridge to cross the ravine.
He knew he could not hunt and kill the ram. The ram was young and therefore too fast and strong for him.
The wolf also realized that if the ram chose to fight back, he could also potentially die if he tried to hunt that strong ram.
The wolf became despondent thinking that he might have to return to his cave empty handed, having found no animal for food that day.
But, suddenly he noticed something else.
On the other side of the bridge, another young and equally strong ram was approaching the same bridge from the opposite end; trying to cross the bridge at the same time.
The wolf knew that the bridge was too narrow for the two rams to cross the ravine simultaneously.
This sight made him extremely happy.
He was sure that, if the rams tried to cross the bridge at the same time; they will have to fight each other.
A fight between those two strong rams was inevitable.
That fight will at least weaken them and therefore, he could kill at least one of the rams.
But, there was an even better possibility in wolf’s mind.
It was the potential outcome where one of the ram dies and the other ram was left very weak from the fight.
He knew he could kill the remaining alive, yet weakened ram and take the carcasses of both dead animals to his cave and not having to worry about food for the rest of that harsh and heavy rainy season.
The wolf watched closely what the rams were going to do next as they both approached the bridge from the opposite ends; at the exact same time.
Both rams were angry that the other one was trying to cross the bridge the same time as he was.
They did not want budge.
First they tried to shake their head showcasing their long, sharp and strong curved horns.
It did not intimidate the other ram.
Next, they menacingly tried to kick up the dust; in an attempt to convince the other ram to back-off.
That did not work either.
In an attempt to cross the bridge simultaneously, both rams started running towards the bridge. The two beasts met right at the dead center of the bridge.
The old stone path of the bridge was too narrow to let the other one by. The bridge was also too high above the ravine to cross it by jumping off the stone railings.
The rams paused for a moment to see whether the other ram was going to admit defeat.
Neither budged.
Having seen all this commotion, the wolf had a wide grin on his face. He knew what his dinner plans were going to be: tasty and fresh ram meat.
The wolf started walking slowly and stealthy along the bottom of the ravine towards the bridge.
By the time the wolf had reached the bottom of the bridge, the fighting had started. The rams locked their horns, battling furiously. There were loud howls and bangs echoing off the ravine.
Their skulls were cracked open and the blood from their fighting wounds, pooled on the stony path of the bridge so much so that it also started to trickle down along the creaks and crevices of the bridge’s stone railings; profusely pouring onto the rocks at the bottom of the ravine.
With a wide grin, the wolf started slurping away the raining rams’ blood splattering onto the rocks below.
In his excitement and joy to quench his days old hunger, the wolf was making a lot of noise while slurping away the blood.
Soon, the rams also started noticing the loud slurping noise coming from the bottom of the bridge.
Due to the intensity of the fight, the rams did not see the wolf at the bottom of the ravine.
But, once they heard the loud slurping sound coming from the ravine below; they stopped fighting for a brief moment to look down, to see what was the source of that sound.
The rams saw a giant, gray wolf; joyously devouring their blood from all the fighting they were having to cross the bridge at the same time.
The rams suddenly recognized their folly.
They realized that their animosity wasn’t going to help them cross the bridge.
Instead, it was only making them weaker and more likely to become the victim of the wolf.
Instead of trying to get across the ravine, the ram that came from the forest; just walked slowly back into the forest.
The other ram, followed him to the forest.
Since the rams stopped their fight, the blood suddenly stopped dripping down the bridge.
To his great dismay, the wolf looked up and the rams were nowhere in sight.
This sight wiped the grin off the wolf’s face and he sulkily continued to explore the wet rocky ravine for any small animals that he could find for supper.
