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Why The Stink Bug Is Black
Narrated by Mark Mojado
Painted by Chris Nunn

The Stink Bug was all white and had beautiful designs on his back. The Creator saw him and said, come up here, I’ve got a job for you. Your designs are really nice. You have a talent for design. At night when the sun goes down I want you to put the stars across the sky.

Every evening at dark the Stink Bug would take his basket full of stars and scatter them across the sky, making the beautiful designs.

Every night there was a new design. All the other creatures would say, hey, those are great designs, and they praised the Stink Bug.

The Stink Bug started getting a big head. He began to think that he was better than the other animals because the Creator had picked him to create the designs. He stopped hanging out with the other animals. The Stink Bug’s ego grew and grew.

One day it got late. The rest of the creatures said, hey, aren’t you going to put the stars up in the sky. But the Stink Bug was kicking back underneath a tree. He fell asleep, and when he awoke the sun was coming up. He rushed and rushed and tripped over a rock. The Stink Bug spilled the stars all over the sky.

The next day, the Creator calls up. So I hear you think you’re better than all my creatures. You fouled up. I will have to punish you. I will take away your beautiful color and your designs and make you black like the night without the stars. I will make you walk with your head to the ground to humble you before the rest of the creatures. I will give you a foul odor so they won’t want to be around you.

I will put the white designs on your feet, so that when you walk by, they’ll know it was you.

So that’s how Stink Bug came to be black and how his little feet came to have little white designs.