On a warm moonlit night, a clever little rabbit nibbled wild herbs near a sleepy village. Out from the shadows padded a hungry coyote. “Aha! I am going to eat you, little rabbit,” he said.

The rabbit did not run. He pointed to the village well, where the round moon shone on the water. “Eat me? But then who will guard the great cheese? Look — the king’s golden cheese, floating right there!”

The coyote’s eyes grew wide. “Cheese! I want it!” The rabbit nodded. “You may have it — but it lies under the water. Drink the well dry, and the cheese is yours.” So the coyote began to lap, and lap, and lap.

While the coyote drank, the rabbit slipped quietly away. The coyote drank until his belly was round as a drum — but the moon-cheese never came closer. “Tricked again!” he groaned, and waddled off to find the rabbit.

The next night the coyote found the rabbit leaning against a great leaning rock. “Now I will eat you!” “Oh, please don’t move me!” cried the rabbit. “I am holding up this rock! If I let go, it will tumble down. Hold it for me while I fetch help!”

The coyote braced his paws against the rock, trembling. The rabbit hopped off “to find help” — and did not come back. At last, tired and shaking, the coyote leaped away. The rock did not fall at all. “Tricked again!”

On the third night, the rabbit sat beneath a humming beehive in a tree. “This time you won’t escape!” “Hush,” whispered the rabbit. “I am the teacher of these singing children. Tap their little house and you will hear the sweetest song.”

The coyote tapped the hive — and out buzzed the bees in a great humming cloud! “Bzzzz!” The startled coyote yelped and ran in circles, then tore away across the sand. The rabbit laughed and laughed.

At last the coyote sat down, dusty and tired and very hungry. “I will never, ever catch that clever rabbit,” he sighed. The rabbit, who had a kind heart, hopped over with an armful of sweet prickly-pear fruit.

“Friends share their supper,” said the rabbit, and they ate together under the moon. From that night on, the coyote stopped chasing and started sharing. And the desert nights were happy for them both.