Once upon a time there was a crab that lived on a beach in southern Spain. The other crabs called him Croqui, because he loved to cover himself in the sand, a bit like a croquette.

Croqui loved sunlight and when summer came he went mad about getting the best place on the beach to sunbathe. He was always very tanned, but he never listened to the older crabs’ advice.

The adult crabs always told him to put on sun cream to stop himself from getting sunburnt on his shell, but he would say that it wouldn’t do him any harm.

One splendid hot summer’s day, Croqui was sunbathing when suddenly he began to smell burning. “What could that be?” he thought. Then he realised that smoke was coming from one of his claws, and that it was scorched. So he raced into the sea to cool off.

After emerging from the water, Croqui saw the burns on his claw and realised that if he had listened to the older crabs, he would never have got burned.

Croqui learned that you have to be very careful on the beach, and that every time we go swimming we must put more cream on so that we don’t end up like Croqui the tanned crab.

THE END

Share this short story for kids with your friends on Facebook, Google +, or Twitter with buttons you’ll find at the beginning or end of the story. Thank you! Stories for kids written by: www.shortstories.net (a pseudonym).