The Devil and His Prickly Pitchfork

There once was a naughty boy going to a nursery school on the outskirts of a town. He was always acting up, stealing toys from other children, teasing them and making their lives miserable.

But whenever he was alone, the boy would turn into a little angel. He loved leafing through picture books and looking at stories about animals and he couldn’t stand when something was hurting them.

“At home, he’s a very nice and responsible boy. Really. He cleans up after himself and always takes his dishes to the sink,” said his mother in her son’s defence when she met his teacher in the nursery school one day.

“That’s truly hard to believe. Here, he’s full of mischief. He throws toys around and sticks out his tongue – even at me! I don’t know what to think,” said the teacher and shook her head.

The boy’s mum knew the teacher was telling the truth. She herself had seen her little boy being nasty to other children many times at a playground. But no one knew there was actually a little devil living inside of the boy, just next to his heart, who loved to poke him with his pitchfork more than anything else.

It usually worked like this: The boy would come to the nursery school in the morning, meek as a lamb and in a good mood, but then, all of a sudden, bam! He would start itching for mischief.

He envied the other children’s toys, everything annoyed him, and he couldn’t sit still for a second. That was always a clear sign the little devil had started pricking the boy’s heart with his pitchfork, yet again.

But there was also a little angel inside of the boy who was supposed to keep an eye on him…