A soldier returning home alone from a great battle found a
monster blocking his path. It wasn’t much of a monster. In fact it was quite
pathetic. It was small, its claws were blunt, and most of its teeth were
missing.
The solder had won all the battles he had ever been in and
was considered something of a hero. He decided he would deal with the rather
feeble looking monster there and then. He had run out of bullets, so using his
rifle as a club he brought the creature to the ground with a single blow.
Then he stepped over it and continued along the path. Within
minutes, the monster was in front of him again, only now it looked slightly
larger and its teeth and claws were a bit sharper.
Once again he hit the monster, but this time it took several
blows to bring it down. Again he stepped over it, and again, a few minutes
later, the monster appeared before him, bigger than ever.
The third time, no matter how much he hit the monster it
would not go down. It grew larger and more ferocious with each blow the solder
aimed at it. Defeated, the soldier fled back down the path, with the monster
chasing after him.
Yet by the time it arrived at the spot where he’d first seen
it, the monster had returned to its original size.
When another traveler appeared on the path the soldier
stopped him and warned him of what had happened. ‘Maybe we can fight it
together,’ he suggested, ‘then we will overcome it.’
‘Let’s just leave the feeble little thing where it is,’ said
the traveler. ‘If you pick a quarrel with something unpleasant when you don’t
really have to, then it simply grows more unpleasant. Let’s just leave it
alone.’
And so they did.
MORAL
Don’t let your toothless little monsters wind you up!
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