The sun rose high in the sky, and the weather became very hot, so the snake came out of its burrow and lay down in the shade of a tree thinking about how to catch something to eat. She looked in all directions to see a bird or an animal, but all she saw was a scorpion that came out from under a nearby stone and ran towards the shade of the tree under which she was lying. The snake stood on its tail, ready to confront the scorpion, which stood in the distance, also ready, but neither of them approached the other, but stood there waiting. The snake asked the scorpion what brought him to her, and he told her that he was hungry and knew that she must be hungry as well, and that he knew of a mouse burrow behind a nearby tree, and asked her to help him catch the mouse so that they could share it. The snake agreed to this, and they both had their own treachery in mind. The scorpion entered the mouse's burrow, and the mouse soon emerged from the burrow, only to be grabbed by the snake, which was waiting at the door, and swallowed immediately. The scorpion came out of the burrow to find that the snake had eaten the whole mouse and left nothing of it, and told him that the mouse was small even for her alone, let alone if two people shared it, and promised him that she would give him double his share next time. The scorpion was very angry, but he hid his anger and told the snake that he hoped she liked the taste of the mouse, and that if she wasn't full yet, he could show her a large hare burrow big enough for both of them to eat. The snake was overjoyed and followed the scorpion, who led her a long way in the sun, and every time she asked him about the burrow, he told her that they were close to it, until the snake was tired and could no longer walk. Finally, they approached a mountain in the middle of the forest, and the scorpion pointed to a large rock and told the snake that the rabbit's burrow was under that rock. The snake asked the scorpion to accompany her to the burrow and intended to kill him and the rabbit, but he apologized and said he was tired from the long walk, so she postponed killing him until she came out of the burrow. The snake crawled into the burrow under the big rock, looked down and saw two eyes shining in the darkness, she was very happy and attacked to eat the rabbit. However, the snake felt strong fangs digging into its skin, it wriggled in pain and tried to get out of the burrow, and with great difficulty it emerged into the light. The snake tried to check what had happened to it but was surprised to find a small animal with sharp fangs and a large furry tail called a mongoose attacking it and biting it all over its body. She tried to catch it but failed every time, and finally the snake could no longer move and became a corpse full of holes, so the mongoose dragged her to its dark burrow to eat her as it had eaten the little mouse before. The scorpion stood not far from the burrow, smiling, and said:

"Didn't you know, snake, that for every strong person in this world, there is someone stronger than him?"