14. A Man and a Lion

A poor man felt desperate, unable to feed his children. He decided to gather some wood in the forest to try to make some money. He knew that this was dangerous because the mountain was ruled by a lion. In the forest, he met the lion and struck a deal with him: he was to bring him food and in return, the lion would let him take wood back with him. After some time, the man invited the lion for dinner to express his gratitude to him. He, however, also asked his wife to serve him separately from the lion. The lion took offence. The next day, the lion was angry and told the man to strike him on the head with his axe. Some days later the lion showed him that the wound on his head had healed. He, however, still felt scarred by the man’s proud words and devoured the man as a punishment. The moral of the tale is that ‘the impact of a sword heals, but that of words does not.’