The tortoise and the scorpion...

There once was a flood on an island and a scorpion who could not swim panicked.  

To save his life he needed to get across the waters to a safe place. The water was rising and so too was his fear…

He found a rather unsuspecting tortoise and asked if he would give him a lift to cross the waters.

The tortoise knowing the reputation of a poisonous scorpion refused!

But the Scorpion begged the Tortoise to save his life…He confessed that he didn’t know how to swim and needs help to get across.

The Scorpion said: “You swim like a dream, and you have what I lack. Let’s say you take me across on your back?”

The tortoise exclaimed, “Are you joking? You’ll sting me while I’m swimming and I’ll drown.”

“My dear tortoise,” laughed the scorpion, “If I were to sting you, you would drown and I’d go down with you! Now where is the logic in that?”

The tortoise replied: “You’ve a less than ideal reputation preceding:

there’s talk of your victims all poisoned and bleeding.

You’re the scorpion — and how can I say this — but, well,

I just don’t feel safe with you riding my shell.”

The scorpion replied, “What would killing you prove?

We’d both drown, so tell me: how would that behoove

me to basically die at my very own hand

when all I desire is to be on dry land?”

The tortoise considered the scorpion’s defense.

When he gave it some thought, it made perfect sense.

The niggling voice in his mind he ignored,

and he swam to the bank and called out: “Climb aboard!”

But just a few moments from when they set sail,

the scorpion lashed out with his venomous tail.

The tortoise too late understood that he’d blundered

when he felt his flesh stabbed and his carapace sundered.

As they both sank to the bottom, the tortoise, resigned to his fate and as he fought for his life, turned to the scorpion and said, “Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there is no logic in you stinging me. So why did you do it?”

“It has nothing to do with logic,”  the drowning scorpion replied.  “It’s just my nature!”

Moral: It is in the nature of some to hurt others. Even when you want to be kind to them. So please be careful who you allow in your life.