There was a little penguin who didn't know how to lie. He heard about `lies' from his elders, but never really understood what they were. After all, he was only a young bird, what can you expect? His life was very simple: every morning he woke up, dove into the sea, caught a few fish for breakfast and spent the rest of the day on the pebbly beach, chatting and fooling around with his young penguin friends. It never occurred to him to lie or boast like some other animals we know: "Hey dudes, I once caught a fish bigger than my whole body!" It was not in the nature of those simple birds, penguins.
But one day, as our penguin was paddling towards the shore, he saw a beautiful penguin girl jumping from rock to rock on the beach. She was a very beautiful penguin indeed: her flanks were round and glossy with fat, her beak was shiny and smooth, her beady eyes were round and shiny too, not at all like the dull eyes of the fish he ate every morning for breakfast. However, when he looked at her, he wanted to eat her.
The beautiful penguin girl was not alone. Everywhere she jumped, she was surrounded by noisy and chattering young penguins. They flapped their short wings and opened their beaks, trying to attract her attention.
Our little penguin sighed and went out of water a bit further down the shore, so that the beautiful penguin girl would not see him.
`Yo, friend! Why the long face?' someone shouted.
It was one of the birds our penguin often chatted with, a tall fellow with a big scratch on his beak.
`Oh, I've just seen...' blurted out our penguin and suddenly stopped. For the first time in his life, he didn't want anyone to know what he was thinking. `Oh, I've just seen... I think I've seen...'
`A fish?' helpfully asked the penguin with the scratched beak.
`Nah...'
`A really big fish? A school of fish?'
`Nah...' Our poor penguin didn't know how to get rid of the nosy neighbour. `Not fish... I saw... a killer whale! Yes, a killer whale, very close to our beach, and coming closer!'
`A killer whale? Why didn't you say so before?' The big penguin shouted and flapped his wings. `Everyone! EVERYONE! Out of the water! A killer whale's coming!'
What followed was a complete mayhem. All the birds started screaming, running around and generally panicking. Indeed, killer whales, those horrible hunters, had been known to jump out of water right onto the beach and catch hapless birds with their horrible sharp teeth.
Our penguin quietly sat down on a rock in the midst of all the turmoil and sighed again. Somebody tripped over him a few times, others painfully stepped on his webbed little feet. Still, the penguin didn't care, he was so miserable.
So, this is what lying is like? When you say something stupid, and they believe you and start running around like mad? I don't like it. I'll never tell lies again, decided the penguin.
Suddenly someone touched him on the shoulder.
`Hey, why aren't you running away like everyone else? Are you stupid?'
He looked up and saw... the shiny black eyes of the beautiful penguin girl! And, quite unexpectedly, he stammered, "No, I'm just b-b-brave?"
`Oh, really!' The penguin girl started to turn away.
And then she heard him sigh and turned to take another look.
With his wet ruffled feathers and thin webbed feet, this penguin guy was kind of interesting. In a haggard sort of way. And those big sad eyes...
`Oh, really!' she repeated. `Tell me more!'
***
My moral? Well, even little penguins can lie and do lots of other stupid things when they want to get the girl. But who cares - as long as they are really cute?