Why did the chicken cross the road?

This chicken always wanted to cross the road.

Every morning, she would walk out of the abandoned farm to the edge of the road. It would stand there wondering about what lay on the other side of the road. It would look at the traffic rushing past and shake its head. It thought, ‘I am so weak. I will surely be crushed beneath all those wheels.’

Sometimes, a large truck would speed past it and the rush of air would knock back the poor chicken. The chicken would scramble up squawking and rush back to the safety of the farm.

One morning a fox entered the farm looking for food. Spotting the chicken, he made a grab for it. The chicken ran for her life. She ran out of the farm, past the edge of the road and straight into the middle of oncoming traffic. Cars swerved this way and that to avoid hitting the chicken. Motorbikes braked and flew over and above the chicken. A roadside hawker laughed at the sight of the chicken running in panic.

But the chicken did not care. She did not stop. She did not freeze. She did not turn back. She ran straight across the road and paused breathless when it reached the other side.

In the newspaper released that evening, the headline screamed, “Chicken crossing road piles up cars on National Highway 4.”