Fables That Fix Lives: Ancient Code for Modern Problems

  A mouse always ran away at the sight of a cat. So the cat came up with a clever trick—it draped a string of prayer beads around its neck. The mouse was delighted. "Look!" it thought. "The cat has turned vegetarian. How wonderful!" To show their gratitude, a group of mice approached the cat. But the moment they got close, the cat pounced—killing and devouring several before the rest could escape. Safe at last, the surviving mice gasped, "The cat is even more dangerous now that it ‘prays’!" Moral: Not every change is genuine. Some predators just learn new disguises.  

  A man one day saw a limbless fox and wondered how it could keep itself alive, so he decided to watch it. Presently a lion came along with some meat, ate some of it and abandoned the rest. From this the fox made his meal. The watching man concluded on the basis of this incident that he should do the same, since Providence would surely accord him similar treatment. He waited a long time, but all that happened was that he got weaker and weaker. But eventually a voice said to him: 'Do not behave like a crippled fox! Be like a lion, so that you can obtain something and leave some for others!’

  A Man once stood up at a marketplace in the East and said, "I have been ordered by the king to collect all the well-born and well-bred and bring them before him, since he wishes to reward them." Everybody that heard him joined him, and he went towards the palace, surrounded by the whole town. Then he suddenly turned round and said, "The king has just sent me word that he means to help only those that have been ill-born and ill-bred to make for their misfortunes." The crowd lingered behind for a while, and then one after another join the man as ill-born and ill-bred to merit the king's gifts.  The man said, "The world goes as the wind blows!"

A farmer, having just stepped into his field to mend a gap in his fence, returned to find his child’s cradle overturned, the blankets torn and bloodstained, and his dog lying nearby—its muzzle also smeared with blood. Convinced the animal had killed his only child, the farmer, in a blind rage, struck the dog dead with his hatchet. But when he lifted the cradle, he discovered his infant unharmed beneath it, alongside the corpse of a massive serpent. The faithful dog had slain the snake to protect the child, a act of loyalty that deserved gratitude, not punishment. This tragic turn of events taught the farmer a bitter lesson: how perilous it is to surrender to the fury of sudden passion without first seeking the truth.  #HastyDecisions #RashJudgments #ImpulseRegret #BlindRage #MoralLesson