A fable from Aesop.
A lion was asleep in his den, when a mouse, returning from foraging for his supper, dashed home as quickly as he could. In doing so, he ran across the lion's mane and ears, waking the beast. The lion, in great agitation, shook himself all over and went round and round in search of the mouse who had woken him. A fox had been watching from nearby.
"Who would have thought that a mighty lion would be so disturbed by a tiny mouse?" quipped the fox.
"I could not care less about the mouse," said the lion. "It's his familiarity and bad manners that I find deplorable."
Moral: Little
liberties may be great
offenses.
"So it's not the mouse that's bothering you."
"No. It's not. Didn't I just say that?"
"Sure, you did. It's just..."
"What?"
"Nothing. I was just thinking. Mouse, he has bad manners, sure, but it was your ears he walked on with his four feet. Your mane that he wiped his feet on."
"Your point?"
"Seems to me, Lion, that the bad manners that got you all riled up are pretty much tied to that itty bitty mouse." The lion thought about this. "Am I right?"
Whereupon the lion, annoyed by the fox's familiarity, pounced on him, and bit his head off.
"Nope."
Moral: If at noon the Lion declares it is night, behold: the stars!