Tuesday, January 6, 2015

97. Aesop's Fables - The Philosopher, the Ants, and Mercury

One day a philosopher was standing by a sea shore, when he suddenly saw a shipwreck. He heard the crew and passenger crying for help, but the sea drowned them all.

The philosopher was deeply moved to see the agony and untimely death of so many innocent people. He inveighed against the unfairness of Providence. He argued that the Creator is wrong in punishing the entire crew and passengers for the sake of punishing one offender. While he spoke this, an army of ant came around and surrounded him.

One of the ants crawled up his foot and stung him. The philosopher mercilessly crushed the entire ant army under his foot. Just then, God Mercury appeared and strike him with his wand. The angry God said, ‘You judge and complain about the action of Providence. Now tell me what have you done to these ants? You killed the entire army for punishing one ant that had stung you’.

The philosopher was ashamed of himself and apologized to the angry God.  

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