Once there lived a man in a wood. He lived with all his friends and his snail. His snail was very special - unlike all the snails that the people kept, his had learnt to dance.
One day all the people who lived in the woods went to a party and left their snails at home to sleep.
While they were having a great time at the party a robber who wasn't very nice came along and stole all the snails and put them in a big bag. When the party had finished and every one had gone home after having a lot of fun, they found no snails! They searched all the places they could - in the houses, up in the trees, under rocks - anywhere that a snail could be hidden, but they couldn't find anything. Suddenly they came across a big bag which was wriggling - they untied the top and found all the snails in it, but there was a problem... they couldn't remember whose was whose! Then the man had a wonderful idea.
He called to his snail,
 "Dance snail! Dance!"
 and his snail stood up and began to jiggle and jump and dance and when it was finished every one remembered how they could find their snails. Like the man, some had taught their snails tricks - some could bounce really high, others could make things out of leaves, while other people knew theirs by the colours of their shells - yellow and black, blue and white, greens, browns and even orange!
Soon every one was happy. The robber hadn't been caught.. but the man's snail told them that the robber had grown frightened of being caught and had run far far away. So everyone was very happy in the end and the next day threw a big party for their snails.