An Actor in the Zoo
One day an unemployed actor visited the zoo, where he tried to earn some money as a street performer. When he started to perform a lot of people came to watch him. Suddenly a zoo keeper approached the actor. He asked the actor to go with him the director’s office. The director the actor that the zoo was in a very difficult situation and needed his help. The director said, ‘I am happy you are here! You help us! Our most popular animal, a gorilla, yesterday. We are afraid that attendance at the zoo will fall. We do not have other attraction like it.’ The director offered the actor the job of dressing up as a gorilla until they could get another one. The actor agreed.
The next morning the actor on the gorilla costume and entered the cage before the first visitors . Soon, he discovered that playing a gorilla was a great job. He slept much as he wanted, played and made fun of people all day long. He attracted crowds than he ever did as an actor. But after some time the crowds by his funny tricks anymore. He began that the people were paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. The actor did not want to lose the attention of his audience, he climbed to the top of his cage, stepped over the wall and hung from the top of the lion’s cage. Of course, the lion got angry, but the crowd liked it.
At the end of the day, the zoo keeper came and increased the actor’s salary for being such a good attraction. This went on for some time. The actor kept the lion angry, the crowds grew larger, and his salary kept going up. Then, one terrible day, he was hanging over the angry lion, he slipped and fell into the lion’s cage right in front of the lion.
The lion prepared to jump. The actor was so scared that he started running round and round the cage with the lion close behind. In the end, the actor started screaming and shouting, ‘Help! Help me!’, but the lion was too quick and jumped. The actor was soon lying on his back and looking the angry lion. Then the lion suddenly said in a low voice, ‘Be quiet, you fool! Do you want both of us to lose our jobs?’