One day, Anansi the spider picked some yams from his garden. Without waiting, he carefully baked them and sat down to eat with delight. Just then, he heard a knock at the door.

-Who can It Be? he asked himself angrily. Opening the door, he discovered that it was his friend Turtle.

Tortoise, very hungry and tired, asked him if he could come with him to eat. Anansi was very selfish and did not want to share his yams, but according to the laws of the jungle, he could not refuse to let a friend into his house. With no choice, Anasi invited Tortuga to come in.

“I’ll think of something to keep my sweet yams from ending up on Turtle’s plate,” thought the spider.

Tortoise entered and sat down at the table, when he reached the pan with the yams, Anansi screamed:

—Stop Turtle! Your hands are very dirty. What bad manners you have, go and wash your hands in the river.

Sure enough, Tortoise’s hands were dirty because he had been dragging himself along the path all day. Embarrassed, he went to the river as fast as he could, and there he washed his hands. When he returned, Anansi had begun to eat.

“I didn’t want the yams to get cold, so I started without you,” Anansi said. Eat, my dear friend.

Tortoise sat down again, he hadn’t reached the saucepan when he heard a cry:

“Stop Turtle! Didn’t you hear me before? Your hands are very dirty.” What bad manners you have, go and wash your hands in the river.

It turns out that Tortoise’s hands had gotten dirty again, as he had crawled on them on the way back. So once again he went to the river. When he finished washing, he crawled on the grass so he wouldn’t get any more dirty. In his absence, Anansi ate all the yams.

Returning, Tortoise noticed the empty saucepan. Puzzled, he looked at Anansi and said:

— Thank you friend for letting me in, I’ll invite you to my house tomorrow to return the favor.

The next day, Anansi met Turtle on the banks of the river.

“Come on friend, dinner is ready,” Turtle said as he swam to the bottom of the water.

But Anansi couldn’t swim like Turtle, his body was very light and he always ended up floating. Then he had an idea: he collected many stones from the shore and put them in the pockets of his elegant coat. Then, he dived into the water managing to swim to the bottom of the river.

It didn’t take him long to get to his friend’s house. Turtle, being a wonderful cook, had covered the table with the most exquisite dishes.

Anansi sat down at the table and as he reached for one of the fine plates, Tortoise exclaimed:

—Stop Anansi! You’re wearing your coat. What bad manners you have, go to the coat rack and hang your coat.

Anansi took off his coat full of stones and in the blink of an eye, he was propelled to the surface of the water. On his empty stomach, he could see Tortoise feasting on his delicious food.

That was how Anansi, the spider, promised not to use his tricks again.