Six Blind Elephants and a Man

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A group of six elephants stumbled upon a naked man in the dark of the night. It being a particularly dark night, they could not see the creature they surrounded. A voice called out nearby, “Honey, are you coming back to the tent? I am Lonely.” Out of curiosity more than fear, the six elephants wished to know what “Honey” was by touch.

The first elephant’s trunk landed upon its short nose and deduced, “It is a creature that most certainly cannot swim in deep water, not having much of a trunk for a snorkel.”

The second elephant’s trunk draped across its spindly legs and said, “It is like a silken blade of elephant grass.”

The third elephant touched upon its teeth and concluded, “It must be a child of the species as it has no tusks to fight off enemies or champion for the female.”

The fourth elephant touched upon its hairy head and countered, “I detect patches where the small brain has signs of rot. It must be old, having lost its tusks already.” The third elephant reassessed his interpretation, “A possibility.”

The fifth elephant poked at the rapidly beating heart and said, “It certainly must be an excitable creature.”

The sixth elephant grabbed “Honey” by the tail and observed, “It has a nice thick tail for swatting flies away.”

At the grabbing of his tail, Honey screeched, “Hey, Hey, Hey,” pulling away. Young elephants will hold the tail of an older elephant to follow them from one place to the next so the sixth elephant was slow to let go but Honey worked himself free and went crashing away through the underbrush.

The six elephants quickly reached a consensus, “A scrawny scared creature,” laughing at its defenselessness curious how such a creature could survive.

“Should we go find out what a Lonely is?”