7.Cut off your tails to save my face

A fox who had lost his tail in a trap was so ashamed of the disfigurement that he felt life was not worth living. So he decided to persuade all the other foxes to maim themselves in the same way; then, he thought, his own loss would not be so conspicuous. He collected them all and advised them to cut off their tails. A tail, he said, was merely a superfluous appendage, ugly to look at and heavy to carry. But one of the others answered: “Look here! You only give us this advice because it suits your own book.”

This tale satirises those who offer advice to their neighbours not out of benevolence but from self-interest.

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