A long, long time ago, in a natural reserve far, far away in China’s west, a group of pandas were celebrating Moon Day. They received two kinds of moon cakes from the panda breeding centre, one was traditionally eaten by Chinese people on the occasion, filled with lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks, and another was made of their favourite bamboo powder.
Oh my goodness, I never knew bamboo trees would grow mooncakes
Yep, cakes were grown from trees, ’cause I can taste bamboo inside. |
The pandas somehow decided the mooncakes made for people were tastier and all pounced to secure lotus cakes as many as possible. But since the offer was limited, social unrest erupted, and some punches and kicks were reportedly exchanged. Luckily, the centre authority responded swiftly and the situation was soon brought under control.
What deserves to be applauded is not just the speedy response, but the centre authority’s firm stance on principles. They refused to appease the rule-breakers by offering more mooncakes made for people as lotus and yolks are deemed by dietitians as containing too much sugar and fat, hence are unhealthy for the pandas, given these fleshy fellows have already been massively overweight.
So rules are rules, that everyone has to follow, even for endangered species like pandas. Now it is known that the fatties have all returned to their traditional diet – fresh bamboo salad – with no further complaints registered.
Note, this is a true story.