Legend of the Easter bunny - Story for kids

We are celebrating Easter this weekend and I hope you are going to find a few Easter eggs in your garden left by the Easter bunny.  

Have you ever wondered why the Easter bunny brings eggs?  

Let met tell you what happened long ago, then you will understand.

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A long long time ago, long before the Easter bunny brought eggs to kids, there was a king.  This king loved getting presents, but he always wanted expensive presents.  He expected everybody in his kingdom to give him gifts when it was his birthday.  He was a greedy king.  

A very poor woman that lived in the kingdom had a hen that laid a lot of eggs.  She did not have any money to buy an expensive gift for the king, so she decided to give him her hen.

The greedy king was not impressed with the present and he told his magician that he would like it more if the hen would lay golden eggs.

The magician worked very hard on a spell and before long the hen was laying golden eggs.  The king was very happy.  

The king got richer and richer and more and more greedy and he was very happy with his special hen.  He knew that other kings were jealous of him and he also knew that somebody would try and steal the hen, because everybody in the kingdom and beyond knew that the hen laid golden eggs.

The king let his carpenters build a special cage for the hen and he always kept the cage next to his thrown, so that he could make sure nobody would try and steal his prize possession.

He thought of a very clever idea - whenever he knew that visitors would come to the castle, he would tell the magician to hide the special hen and put an ordinary hen in the cage - just for in case.  So if somebody did try and steal the hen, they would end up with a hen that only laid ordinary eggs.

One day a king from another country came to visit and again the special hen was exchanged with the ordinary hen.  Believe it or not, that night somebody stole the hen from the cage.

The next morning when the king saw it, he was very happy that he had this good plan and he knew his special hen was still safe.

He told the magician to bring back his hen that laid the golden eggs.  

When the king checked the cage later that day, he only saw a white bunny inside the cage.

"Shame poor bunny, how did you get in the cage?" the king asked.  He immediately called some of his soldiers and told them they must take the bunny back to the forest.

When the magician came back later that day the king wanted to know where his special hen was.  Then the magician realized he had forgotten something....

"I did put the hen back in the cage but I forgot to turn it back into a hen, since I always turn the hen into a bunny if visitors come, that they will not steal your special hen if they found it by accident."

The king realized that the bunny he let go was actually his special hen...

The whole of the kingdom searched the whole forest, but the bunny was nowhere to be found.  The king was very upset.

Years went by and the bunny was never seen again, but the children of the kingdom started finding colorful eggs left in the gardens and the forest at a certain time of year, and every now and then one of the kids would find a golden egg...

So now you know why the bunny still bring eggs and hopefully the king also learned that is it better to share than to keep everything for yourself.

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