We do not mean, we do not really mean, that everything, you are about to hear, is the truth. A story, a story, let it come, let it go…

There was a time, long, long ago, when only meerkats had color in their coats.

All the animals envied the meerkats for the different shades of their fur, the black around their eyes and the stripes on their backs. They all wanted colorful coats too. So, God gave a meerkat the power to decorate the coats of the other animals.

The meerkat was happy to paint coats, but, he was also a practical fellow. Time spent painting coats, was time away from hunting for food. And, meerkats need a lot of food. To make sure that he and his family had enough to eat, he asked the animals to bring him something when they came to get their coats painted. They all agreed.

Every animal that came to get its coat painted, brought a good-sized meal to share with the meerkats.

When it was the leopard’s turn to get painted, he went on a special hunt and caught an antelope for the meerkat family to eat. Delighted with the generous gift, the meerkat took his time and painted a beautiful gold and black pattern on the leopard’s coat.

The hyena saw the leopard’s coat and wanted one just like it. He too went hunting to see what he could get. To his surprise, he caught an antelope that was bigger than the leopard’s. He said to himself:

“I’ll eat a little bit of this antelope until it is the same size as the one the leopard got. Then, I will take the rest to the meerkat and get a coat that is just as beautiful.”

Now, the hyena was a greedy eater. Once he started eating, he ate and ate and ate, without thought. By the time he had eaten his fill, all that was left of his catch were a few bloody bones. He gathered up the bones and took them to the meerkat.

The meerkat thanked him for the gift and asked him to lie down for his painting. In less time than it takes me to tell this story, the meerkat was done. When the surprised hyena asked how he could have finished so fast, the meerkat said,

“I did for you, in exact measure, what you did for me.”

The hyena looked and saw that his coat was nothing like the leopard’s beautiful spotted one. Instead it was a dirty color with ugly blots and smears. There was nothing he could do about it. Keeping to the tall grasses, he ran home in shame.

“What you give, you get, ten times over.”
—Yoruba proverb

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So, now you know: it is because the hyena tried to cheat the meerkat that he got an ugly coat. That is also why he prefers to hide in the daytime and come out at night, when his ugly coat is not so obvious.

The title card for “The Hyena’s New Coat,” was adapted from Jason Sweeney’s “Hyenas laugh so they won’t cry” illustration. Thank you Jason, for sharing.