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Category: Series

  • The Donkey in the Lion’s Skin

    A vain and foolish donkey finds a discarded lion’s hide. Draping the lion’s skin over himself, the donkey imagines he can now pass as the king of beasts. Indeed, as he walks through the fields, other animals and even people flee in terror, believing a fierce lion is on the prowl. Enjoying this newfound respect…

  • The Lion’s Share

    A lion joins a partnership with other animals—often a fox, a wolf, and a smaller beast like a jackal or ass—to hunt. Together, they succeed in bringing down a large prey (such as a stag). When it comes time to divide the meat, the lion arrogantly assigns himself the first portion because he is king;…

  • Belling the Cat (The Mice in Council)

    A community of mice is terrorized by a marauding house cat that pounces on them stealthily. Desperate to find a solution, the mice convene a council to discuss how to protect themselves. Many ideas are debated. Finally, a young mouse proposes a bold plan: hang a bell around the cat’s neck. That way, the bell…

  • The Bundle of Sticks (The Old Man and His Sons)

    An aging father with several quarrelsome sons seeks to teach them a final lesson before he dies. He gathers his sons and sets a bundle of sticks (or in some versions, a bundle of arrows) before them. He first asks each son to try to break the bundle when it’s tightly bound together. Despite their…

  • Androcles and the Lion

    Set in classical times, this story (often included in Aesop’s corpus though of later origin) tells of Androcles, a fugitive slave in ancient Rome, and a lion. Androcles escapes his cruel master and flees into the wilderness. There, he encounters a lion in pain, groaning and unable to walk. Instead of fleeing, Androcles bravely approaches…

  • The Dog and its Reflection

    The 17th-century engraver Wenceslaus Hollar depicts the greedy dog dropping its real bone while lunging at the illusion in the water. A dog crossing a stream with a piece of meat in its jaws looks down and sees what appears to be another dog in the water, carrying a larger piece of meat. Not realizing…

  • The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

    A town mouse, accustomed to the luxuries and bustle of urban living, once visited his cousin, a country mouse, who lived a simpler life in the fields. The country mouse humbly served rustic fare—plain grains and acorns. Finding this provincial meal and quiet life dull, the town mouse boasted of the refined delicacies and sophistication…

  • The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs

    A poor farmer and his wife possess an extraordinary goose that lays a solid gold egg each day. Initially, this marvel brings them steady wealth. But greed soon overtakes prudence: impatient to have all the treasure at once, the couple decides to kill the goose and cut it open, believing it must contain a great…

  • The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

    A cunning wolf, unable to catch enough prey due to vigilant shepherds, devises a deceit: it dons the fleece of a sheep to blend into the flock. Disguised as one of the herd, the predatory wolf can prowl among the sheep without alarming them. Yet the ruse proves its own undoing—accounts differ on the ending.…

  • The Lion and the Mouse

    A mighty lion and a humble mouse cross paths in this tale of unexpected reciprocity. The lion, king of the savanna, initially captures the tiny mouse and, amused by the little creature’s pleas, decides magnanimously to spare its life. The grateful mouse squeaks that it will return the favor someday, which the lion finds laughable—how…

  • The Fox and the Grapes

    A hungry fox spies a cluster of ripe grapes hanging high on a vine. The grapes look delicious, and the fox eagerly leaps to snatch them, but they hang just out of reach. After repeated failures to obtain the fruit, the fox scoffs, “Oh, you’re probably sour anyway!” and trots off, convincing himself that he…

  • The Tortoise and the Hare

    A hare, swift and self-assured, and a tortoise, slow but steadfast, agree to race one another. Bolting ahead easily, the hare becomes so overconfident in his lead that he stops to nap midway. The plodding tortoise, meanwhile, never pauses and eventually passes the sleeping hare to reach the finish line first. This fable’s popular moral,…

  • The Boy Who Cried Wolf

    This fable, numbered 210 in the Perry Index of Aesop’s tales, concerns a young shepherd boy who repeatedly deceives villagers by shouting that a wolf is attacking the flock. Twice the alarmed villagers rush to help, only to find the boy’s cries were a prank. When eventually a real wolf appears and the boy desperately…

  • The Ant and the Grasshopper

    In this classic tale, a hard-working ant labors all summer to store food, while a carefree grasshopper sings and plays. When winter arrives and the grasshopper finds itself starving, it begs the ant for food—but the ant reproaches its idleness and refuses to help. The straightforward moral is that diligent preparation and industry are rewarded,…

  • The story of the riddle of the twin winds breathing

    Long after the moon had set over Eurotas and Sparta’s spears lay stacked in frustration, word rode south that the Arcadians of Tegea were laughing again—another Spartan expedition broken on their stony fields. Kings grew grim; elders clutched their cloaks as if war-rent cloth could hide the taste of failure. At last the two royal…

  • Significant Paradoxes: Science, Technology, and Ecology

    97 Paradox of Enrichment In laboratory predator-prey systems (e.g., algae and zooplankton), adding extra nutrients seems beneficial but can trigger large-amplitude oscillations leading to extinction. Abundant food lets prey over-populate, predators then explode, prey crash, and predators starve. Real ecosystems show similar instability when fertiliser run-off spurs algal blooms. The paradox warns that interventions geared…

  • Significant Paradoxes: Psychology and Behaviour

    87 Abilene Paradox Four relatives sit on a Texas porch in blistering heat. Someone suggests driving 53 miles to Abilene for dinner. Nobody really wants to go, but each, fearing disapproval, says “sounds good.” They endure the hot, dusty trip and a mediocre meal, only to discover afterward that none of them actually desired the…

  • Significant Paradoxes: Social Choice and Politics

    79 Condorcet (Voting-Cycle) Paradox Three citizens rank policies A, B, C such that majority prefers A > B, B > C, and C > A, creating a cycle with no clear winner. Individual rankings are rational; the collective ranking is not. The paradox proves that simple majority voting can violate transitivity, foreshadowing complexities in committee…

  • Significant Paradoxes: Economics and Political Economy

    61 Jevons Paradox (Rebound Effect) When James W. Jevons studied Britain’s coal industry (1865) he noticed a counter-intuitive cycle: improvements in steam-engine efficiency lowered the cost of using coal-powered machinery, which in turn raised total coal demand nationwide. Efficiency that should have conserved the resource instead accelerated its depletion. Modern energy economics calls this the…

  • Significant Paradoxes: Decision Theory and Game Theory

    52 Prisoner’s Dilemma Two accomplices are interrogated separately. Each may Co-operate (stay silent) or Defect (betray). Mutual co-operation yields 2 years each; mutual defection 5 years each; unilateral betrayal frees the defector and jails the co-operator for 10 years. Because defection strictly dominates, rational agents defect, landing at 5 + 5 instead of 2 +…

  • Significant Paradoxes: Epistemology and Probability

    38 Hempel’s Raven Scientific hypotheses are usually universal claims—for example, “All ravens are black.” By standard logic that statement is equivalent to its contrapositive “All non-black things are non-ravens.” Hempel pointed out a tension between that equivalence and ordinary confirmation. A sighting of a black raven clearly supports the hypothesis, yet the contrapositive implies that…