The Chained Elephant.
The little baby elephant had her foot chained to a tiny stake nailed down in the ground. She yearned to know the world and learned a lot of new things, so, since the very first day that the circus’s owner tied her on that spot, the brave, vigorous little elephant tried to free herself from her captivity.
Every single day she tugged at that chain hard, trying to pull the stake out. Feeling exhausted at the end of the day, she used to laid down crying and thinking that this wooden post was stronger than her, and so she used failed sleep. However, she was obstinate and she carried on trying and trying restlessly during days, weeks, and months until one day she finally gave up.
Many years passed by, and that cute baby became a beautiful, gigantic adult elephant. She was admired for all the people who comes to see her doing all kind of silly pirouettes she had been forced to learn.
The circus’s owner in all this years only had removed her chain in order to change it for a bigger one that suited better in her large foot. Although, he never cared to put a bigger stake in the ground, so the elephant was only tied to a tiny one stuck in the ground just a few centimetres. However, she remained there unable to run away.
Certainly, she could have got free herself, just tugging lightly at the chain, if she have tried it again, but she couldn’t. That day in the past, when she relinquish to carry on fighting, a terrible idea grew up inside her, resting deeply engraved in her memory for ever: she never will be able to free herself, because she wasn’t strong enough, and she never would be.