One
day, in the jungle, a set of bathroom scales appeared. The animals played with
it for quite some time until a parrot who had escaped from the zoo explained to
them how it worked. All the animals took turns to weigh themselves. At first
this was a big game; every day each animal would see how much weight they had
gained or lost. However, before long, many animals began to obsess about their
weight. The first thing they would do each day would be to run to the scales,
weigh themselves, and spend the rest of the day with a grumpy expression on
their faces. This because, no matter what the scales said, the animals always
weighed the same, in other words: "more than they wanted to".
As
the months passed, the scales began to suffer the animals’ disapproval. The
scales were regularly kicked, or given poisonous looks. One day, the scales
decided that from the following morning things would have to change.
That
morning, the first to run to weigh itself was the zebra. However, as soon as it
stepped onto the scales, the scales began tickling the zebra’s hooves. Soon the
scales found just the right spot, and the zebra couldn’t stop giggling. This
was so much fun for the zebra that from that day on it no longer worried about
its weight, and off it went to happily eat its breakfast for the first time in
ages. The same happened to whoever went to weigh themselves that day... so
that, before long, no one was worried any longer about their weight. Rather,
they all commented on how much fun the scales and its tickling were.
As
the months and the years passed, the scales stopped reading weight and began
reading good humour and optimism instead. Soon everyone happily discovered that
this was a much better indicator of beauty and a person’s value. Finally, in
the jungle everyone forgot about that antiquated and old-fashioned measurement
known as the kilo.
