A man went to Africa on a safari. While there, he came upon an elephant in great pain, with a giant thorn in its foot. The man very slowly and fearfully approached the elephant, and gently removed the thorn from its foot. The elephant began to walk away, then turned and stared at the man for a full minute, locking eyes with him. The man was terrified, until the elephant turned again and slowly continued on its way.

The man heaved a deep sigh of relief and thought, “I wonder, if I ever see that elephant again, if it will remember me?”

A few years later, the man went to the circus back in the States. He noticed that one of the elephants kept looking at him, almost like it knew him.

The man wondered, “Could this be that elephant I helped so long ago?” He decided to get a closer look.

With the elephant still giving him the staredown, the man moved in closer, getting right up in front of the elephant. Their eyes locked. An expression of recognition seemed to cross the elephant’s face.

It reaches down and picked the man up carefully with its trunk. It lifted him high in the air, holding him aloft as if to exalt him for all to pay homage, and made a full three hundred and sixty degree turn. Then, thrusting him even higher into the air, with a mighty swing of his trunk, sent him crashing to the ground below and trampled him into the ground.

Turns out it wasn’t that elephant.