By Hafsat Ibrahim Tukur
For a long time, Amina had made the flour that the other women in her village used for making corn cakes. After she had travelled far to find enough grains of corn, she pounded them to make flour.
One day, Amina was out looking for corn when she met an old woman who was her neighbour. She was carrying a huge basket full of corn on her head. Amina asked her for some of the corn but the neighbour was extremely rude to her.
She said, “This corn is mine.Go away!” And she pushed Amina away. Amina fell over and the corn in her basket spilled on the dirty ground .
“How can she find so much corn?”, wondered Amina.
Then she guessed that her neighbour had been stealing it from other villages for a long time. Amina decided to follow her the next day .
Early in the morning,the old woman left the village with an empty basket. She was wearing green and brown clothes so that no one could see her. Amina watched her neighbour, who was smiling as she stole corn from the next village.
Amina was angry because the woman was a thief. She had been rude and had lied to her. Amina decided to punish the old woman.
The following day, Amina was hiding when the old woman returned to their village. After the old woman had left her basket on the ground, Amina put red ants in her basket.
Later, her neighbour went to find her corn and the ants crawled over her and bit her hard .
The old woman screamed, “Help! Please, get these ants off me. I’m very sorry! I promise you I’ll never steal again.”
The women in the villages forgave the thief because she was old with many children. But they were very proud of Amina.
