Monthly Archives: August 2013

73.The Crow and Lord Transporter

A CROW caught in a snare prayed to the merciful Lord Success to release him, making a vow to offer some frankincense at his shrine. But when rescued from his danger, he forgot his promise. Shortly afterwards, again caught in a snare, he passed by Lord Success and made the same promise to offer frankincense to Lord Transporter. Lord Transporter soon appeared and said to him,

“You most base fellow – how can I believe you, who have disowned and wronged your former patron?”

The last sham promise can be the hardest.

72.The Crab and the Fox

A CRAB, forsaking the seashore, chose a neighboring green meadow as its feeding ground. A fox came across him, and being very hungry ate him up. Just as he was on the point of being eaten, the crab said,

“I well deserve my fate, for what business had I on the land, when by my nature and habits I am only adapted for the sea?”

Contentment with our lot is an element of happiness.

71.The Crab and His Mother

An old crab said to her son, “Why do you walk sideways like that, my son? You ought to walk straight.” The young crab replied, “Show me how, dear mother, and I’ll follow your example.” The old crab tried, but tried in vain, and then saw how foolish she had been to find fault with her child.

# Example is better than precept.

 

70.The Cock and the Pearl

A COCK was once strutting up and down the farmyard among the hens when suddenly he espied something shining amid the straw. “Ho! Ho!” he said, “that’s for me,” and soon rooted it out from beneath the straw. What did it turn out to be but a Pearl that by some chance had been lost in the yard? “You may be a treasure,” Master Cock said, “to men that prize you, but for me I would rather have a single barley-corn than a peck of pearls.”

“PRECIOUS THINGS ARE FOR THOSE THAT CAN PRIZE THEM.”