提 要
天下事都相對存在，互相比較才能凸顯。得與失也一樣，得中有失，失中有得，得未必是福，失未必是禍，第一則寓言是個好例子；第二則近似出自《符子》裡「與虎謀皮」的寓言，皮是生命必須品，當然老虎不肯「出讓」。用來比喻：「跟惡人商量要他放棄自己的利益，是絕對辦不到的」。
★The Peacock
Before he got his beautiful tail, the Peacock was an ordinary bird, with a small bunch of feathers.
One day, the Peacock visited Juno, the Goddess of Protection. The Peacock told her that he wished to look grand and beautiful. Juno smiled. He was a good bird and she liked him.
The Peacock then described the long train of brightly coloured feathers that he wanted to trail behind him. He also wished to be the loveliest of all the birds!
To his great joy, Juno agreed.
What a wonderful tail he got! Blue and green with a jewel-like pattern, opening up like a fan when he raised it. Now the Peacock decided to walk like a king! So he held his head high and walked with style!
The common birds looked at him in surprise! Even the pretty long tailed pheasants were jealous!
After showing off his tail, the Peacock decided to fly.
The Peacock was shocked! He simply could not fly. He could take a few flying steps, but nothing more! He sadly realised that had lost a wonderful ability, simply because he had wanted to look good!
Think well before you choose what you want in life.
★The Wolf and The Crane
A Wolf had been feasting too greedily, and a bone had stuck crosswise in his throat. He could get it neither up nor down, and of course he could not eat a thing. Naturally that was an awful state of affairs for a greedy Wolf.
So away he hurried to the Crane. He was sure that she, with her long neck and bill, would easily be able to reach the bone and pull it out.
“I will reward you very handsomely!” said the Wolf, “if you pull that bone out for me.”
The Crane, as you can imagine, was very uneasy about putting her head in a Wolf’s throat. But she was grasping in nature, so she did what the Wolf asked her to do.
When the Wolf felt that the bone was gone, he started to walk away.
“But what about my reward!” called the Crane anxiously.
“What!” snarled the Wolf, whirling around. “Haven’t you got it? Isn’t it enough that I let you take your head out of my mouth without snapping it off?”
Expect no reward for serving the wicked.
解 說
★孔雀
在得到美麗的尾巴之前，孔雀只是一隻擁有一小束羽毛、普通的鳥。
有一天，孔雀拜訪「保護女神」朱諾。孔雀告訴她，希望自己看起來很漂亮。朱諾笑了，孔雀是一隻好鳥，她喜歡他。然後，孔雀描述了他想要尾隨身後的長串豔色羽毛。他也希望成為所有鳥兒之中最令人愉悅的！
為了讓他喜悅，朱諾同意了。
孔雀有了一個多麼美妙的尾巴！藍色與綠色寶石般的圖案，展開時像一把炫麗的羽扇。孔雀決定像國王一樣地走路！於是他抬頭挺胸，走出特有的風格。
尋常的鳥兒驚奇地看著孔雀，即使是有漂亮長尾的長尾雉也嫉妒！
炫耀自己的尾巴之後，孔雀決定飛行。
孔雀很震驚，他根本飛不起來。他可以蹦跳幾個飛行前的步驟，但僅此而已。他悲傷地察覺，喪失了這個鳥類獨有的奇妙能力，只因為他想看起來漂亮！
在選擇你想要的人生之前，先仔細想清楚。
★狼與鶴
一隻狼貪婪地狼吞虎嚥之後，一根骨頭卡在他喉嚨裡了。 上不去也下不來，當然也不能再吃東西。 當然，對狼來說這是一個糟糕透頂的狀態。
於是狼趕到鶴的面前。他有把握，靠鶴的長脖子和尖嘴，很容易就能夠到夾到骨頭並把它拉出來。
「我會非常優渥地獎勵你！」狼對鶴說，「如果你幫我把喉嚨裡的骨頭取出來。」
可想而知，鶴對於把頭伸到狼的喉嚨裡感到非常不安，但她自然而然地領悟了，所以她做了狼要她做的事。
當狼察覺喉裡鯁骨不見了的時候，他開始走開了。
「但是，我的獎勵呢？」鶴焦急地叫。
「什麼？」狼咆哮著轉身：「你沒得到獎勵嗎？難道我沒有讓把你的頭從我嘴裡拿出來，而沒把咬斷？」
別為惡人服務還想得到報酬。