Excludes

Once upon a time in a small village, a group of animals gathered to play a game of tag. The animals included a lion, a giraffe, a monkey, a rabbit, and a deer. The game started and the lion began chasing the others. The rabbit was the first to be tagged and he was out.

As the game progressed, the lion began to exclude certain animals from the game. He would shout out “No monkeys allowed!” or “No giraffes allowed!” So each time he did that, the excluded animal would have to leave the game.

The other animals noticed this and decided to play a trick on the lion. When it was the monkey’s turn to chase, he shouted “No one allowed!” and he managed to tag the lion.

The lion was amazed and felt excluded from the game. He became very angry and decided to go home. He shut himself in his cave and refused to come out. From that day on, he was known as the animal who “shuts out” others from the game.

And that’s how the crossword clue “excludes” is connected to “shuts out“.