Somewhere far away from here there is a large desert, where few animals live, fewer plants grow, and only heat and sand are in abundance. Hundreds of miles away from that desert, in a mountain, a river rises, creates ravines and strolls down gentle slopes, is fed by small rivulets and, grown to enormous size, flows into the desert, where, again hundreds of miles later, it is conquered by the fierce and inexorable sun and dries up. But on its way it creates a paradise around it, where a small and privileged group of animals live in overabundance, knowing little and caring less about the desert around their oasis.
The hero of this story, a crocodile, lived in this paradise. Since you are certainly unable to pronounce his name, same as I would have great difficulties to write it down, I shall call him Stewart, because in the other crocodiles his name produces the same associations that the name of Stewart produces in you.
When he broke the shell of his egg before all his brothers and sisters he was bigger than any other crocodile baby that anybody could remember, and he continued like that. Grown up he was the largest, strongest, most beautiful and also the most cunning and ferocious crocodile in the river, and everybody feared him, and many of the female crocodiles tried to attract his attention.
But Stewart was also the proudest crocodile that ever breathed. His abilities and victories made him think he was the king of the earth, and that everything he could possibly crave should immediately be bestowed on him. The biggest antelopes and the highest giraffes were just good enough for him and his fame. He thought that he had earned all these bounties, and it never occurred to him to regard them as gifts. Therefore it would have been nonsense to share anything with all those animals who were too stupid and lazy to be as strong and powerful as he was.
So, when all the other crocodiles were lying with open jaws on a sandbank after a delicious dinner, letting the little toothpicker birds feed on the morsels of meat stuck between their teeth, Stewart felt that it was surely not fit for the king of the crocodiles, and anyway for the king of all animals, to become an object of ridicule by allowing those little beggars to walk around unharmed between his jaws. Full of contempt he taunted the other crocodiles and admonished them not to be so forgetful of their rank as the leading race of animals; and when his comrades would not hear, he tried to put an end to this ungainly spectacle by scaring the birds away. He then lay down on a sandbank himself, opened his jaws and waited for the birds to settle down between them. Then, with a sudden movement, he closed his teeth upon them and swallowed them. The other crocodiles were not at all pleased, because gradually no bird would dare to pick any crocodile's teeth for fear of its being Stewart, but nobody dared to do anything against his behaviour, because he was so strong. Nonetheless there was a reaction: The other crocodiles would often leave when Stewart approached them, and when he did not stop frightening away the toothpicker birds he was soon quite alone, and no crocodile wanted to be in his company.
The old and wise crocodile, to whom everybody would go when they needed advice, once went to Stewart in order to warn him of the consequences of his behaviour, but barely escaped being killed and eaten by him.
So Stewart became rather lonely and in consequence very sullen and perhaps even more ferocious and cruel.
But something else was happening to him. Those bits of meat between his teeth, which nobody removed, began to decay and gradually spoiled his teeth. At first this only made his breath reeking, and when the time came for Stewart to look for a wife, in spite of all his good looks he would not find any female who could endure his smell, and Stewart became even more lonely and sullen; and insisting on his opinions in the face of everybody's scorn had become a matter of principle. Later on, some of his teeth began to decay as well, and apart from the excruciating pain this produced it became more and more difficult for Stewart to hunt and kill other animals. At first he resorted to killing them by a stroke of his tail and chewing them later in leisure, but soon he was unable to chew them at all, and he became very, very weak. When the time was come that he had to die, he made up his mind to ask the old and wise crocodile why he of all crocodiles, the strongest, the biggest and the best, had to die so untimely.
"That is very simple", said the old crocodile, eyeing Stewart compassionately. "You digressed from the laws of nature. You were not content with the relationships between the animals as God made them, but tried to forsake the old bonds. Regarding only your own immediate advantage, you have made a desert out of your mouth: By feeding the toothpicker birds you would have helped them, and in return they would have protected your teeth. You needed them as well as they needed you, but you knew everything better. Thinking that you could change nature to your benefit you have been proved the main loser."
Now at last did Stewart understand, but for him it was too late.