“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.”
Proverbs 26:4-5
There was a pig in the barnyard who thought everyone should live as he did, without care or particularity. He often spouted off that if everyone was only Content as he was, Happy with whatever came their way, and without the stain of Ambition, they would have better days. He particularly harassed the horse who plowed all day and came into his hay quiet and worn.
A goose took up the cause and honked the obvious, that if everyone cared for swill there would be no one to create it and some would do better to be more thankful for the horse that plowed and turned and hauled their corn cobs then to give him no end of grief from his worn out dusk to early dawn.
So each day passed, the pig wallowed and grunted, the goose gabbled and gaggled, and the horse had no peace.
The farmer’s dog came out on a night when the goose, fed up with the pig, drove around pecking him, honking loudly. The pig squealed.
The dog turned to the goose, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.”
Then he looked to the horse, “ Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.”
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