The Sweet Potato Thief

retold here by Brianne
Adapted from "The Sweet Potato Thief" from Tales of the Menehune by Caroline Curtis

Once a long time ago in the town of Kohala, there was a farmer named Owl, and Owl grew sweet potatoes.

One day when Owl went to harvest his sweet potatoes, he noticed that some of his sweet potatoes were missing. Immediately Owl knew his neighbor Rat was most likely to have been the thief since Rat was too lazy to grow his own goods.

Owl decided to watch to see if Rat would come again to steal more food. After awhile Owl knew that Rat had caught on to Owl’s plan, and decided to steal from other animals. Then Owl decided to go back to his harvesting. Owl pulled one sweet potato out from the ground and only saw the sweet potato top. He repeated this action with other sweet potatoes and always the same thing happened. When Owl was watching out for Rat, Rat dug an underground tunnel under Owl’s sweet potato patch.

Owl decided that he should make meals of the sweet potato tops. Owl thought, “This is enough for one ortwo meals.” Owl put the sweet potato tops in the ‘imu and went to work again.
While Owl was away, Rat had uncovered the ‘imu and ate most of the sweet potato tops. When Owl had come back to find his gourd in the ‘imu almost empty he was furious. Owl thought that the scraps from that would make a small breakfast for the next day. When Owl woke up the next morning he found that the rest of his scraps were gone, because again Rat clawed his way into the ‘imu and ate the rest of Owl’s scraps.

A few days past by, and Owl grew weaker and hungrier. Then Hawk came to visit Owl. Hawk asked why Owl was looking so sick. Then Owl told him that he had no food and was starving. The Owl explained to Hawk, how Rat had been stealing all of his sweet potatoes. Hawk suggested that he just eat Rat, but Owl was too weak to even walk. Then Hawk told Owl that he himself would do the killing, and Owl could just watch. Then Owl found some strength of his own to tagalong with Hawk.

Before Rat got a chance to a word, Hawk pounced on him and was ready to eat him when Owl shouted STOP! Hawk looked at him astonished. Then Owl instructed Hawk not to eat him, but tear him to shreds.

So now Owl is no longer the farmer of Kohala, his is a hunter. And that is why some people say that is the reason why rats are smaller and are hide away from Owls and Hawks. But some people still say that there are rats like Rat, who are still sneaking sweet potatoes.