Hotel de Tin Tin
Tin Tin the squirrel was enjoying a ripe red jambu, when the little girl of the house spotted him. “Look Daddy,” she pointed at him, “doesn’t he look cute?’ Now this compliment was more than enough for attention-seeking Tin Tin to try to grab more attention. So he tried holding the piece of fruit with one hand and nibbling it. But the fruit fell to the ground. Tin Tin ran up the branch and hid behind the leaves as the little girl approached the fallen fruit and placed it on a branch. “We should leave some food for him on the branch every day!” he heard her say.
The next morning Tin Tin saw the little girl coming towards the tree with a plate full of fruit. It looked so colourful with pieces of papaw, mango, plantains and more. “I hope that’s all for me!” Tin Tin thought smacking his lips. The girl with the help of her father tied the plate with pieces of string to a branch. Then they went back and watched. Proud little Tin Tin didn’t come out; he needed some privacy to enjoy the food.
“Let’s go in,” said the little girl’s father, “if we stay here the squirrel won’t come out to the plate. There will also be a lot of birds coming into our garden to eat from this plate and you’ll get to see them all!” The little girl smiled happily.
After the girl and her father went in Tin Tin came out and jumped onto the plate. He laughed in sheer happiness and looked around not knowing which one to taste first. There was too much food for one squirrel. And he even heard them say that they will put food into this plate every morning. “I am one lucky squirrel!” Tin Tin thought sniffing a piece of mango. “I’ll have enough food to last forever!” And so he took a bite from a piece of mango and then a piece of papaw. And what was this?
A plantain – his favourite! Now this was a feast like no other!
The branch suddenly shook as two mynahs came and sat on the branch. “Oh pieces of fruit!” they screeched in excitement,
“How lovely…How very lovely!” “Now wait a minute!” said an annoyed Tin Tin, “This is all mine!” “But surely you can’t eat all that. More than half of that will go to waste!” reasoned a Bul-bul bird turning his spiky black head sideways. “Hmm…that’s true!” thought the squirrel. “Okay listen up,” he shouted, “this is ‘Hotel
de Tin Tin’ and if you wish to eat from here, you have to pay me!” By now there was quite a gathering of birds around the plate and they all looked surprised at what he said. “Pay you with what?” asked a Parrot. “Pay me with edible seeds and nuts!” replied Tin Tin. “But that’s silly!” said the Parrot, “If we had food like seeds we could eat those. Why should we pay you with them just to eat your food?” “Yes that’s true!” All the other birds agreed.
“Alright suit yourself! No seeds, no food!” said the greedy little squirrel, “fruits are tastier than seeds anyway!” The birds all scolded him and flew away. Tin Tin ate as much as he could but there was too much food for one small squirrel. The girl came every morning and emptied the leftovers and filled the plate with fresh fruits. Although Tin Tin ate every day, what he could eat was a very small amount.
One morning the girl came near the tree with her father and showed him the plate which was still full to the brim. “All this food is going to waste.
I don’t think any animal eats from this. I haven’t seen a single bird!” she said. “Let’s put what we brought only for today and remove the plate from the branch tomorrow,” her father replied. “What was all this?” thought Tin Tin his eyes bulging out in disbelief. He had never expected any of this. He thought they would continue to put food every day. Wasn’t this supposed to be a feast forever? He realized that his greediness had turned to his own disadvantage. “Now it’s time to make things right!” he thought jumping up the branches and climbing high up the tree as fast as he could.
“All right listen up all you birds,” Tin Tin shouted as loud as he could. “Hotel de Tin Tin has changed its rules. All birds are invited for free meals from this moment on!” The birds looked at him in disbelief. “No thanks,” they replied and looked the other way. “There’s got to be some catch to this sudden kindness.
He’s such a greedy little fellow!” said a parrot to another bird. Tin Tin heard that and felt very shy.
He looked at the birds apologetically. “I know I was being mean and hurt your feelings. So please forgive me. Please come down and enjoy the fruits.”
The birds looked at each other and nodded their heads. Then they slowly came flying down towards the plate and they all started to feast on the sweet pieces of fruit on the plate. The little girl peeped from her room wandering what the commotion was after hearing so many birds at once. “Look Daddy,” she shouted happily. “There are so many birds eating from the plate today. It looks like we don’t have to remove it after all!”