The Man and the Lion

"I am stronger than you," said the man. "You are not," said the lion. "I am stronger than you." The two of them were walking through the forest together, and they had been at it all morning. Over the hills they went, and down the long path, and neither one would give way.

At a bend in the path they came to a statue cut from stone. It showed a man with his hands around the neck of a lion. The stone lion's tongue hung out. The stone man stood tall.

The man stopped. He pointed. He began to grin. "There!" he said. "Look at that! See how strong we are? We beat even the king of the beasts!"

The lion walked all the way around the statue, once, slowly. Then he sat down and licked one great paw.

"One of you men made this," he said. "If lions knew how to carve stone, you would see the man under the paw."