The Lion's Breath

King Lion was testing his subjects' loyalty. "How does my breath smell?" he asked them, one by one.
When they said his breath smelled sweet, the lion attacked them as hypocrites.
When they said it smelled bad, he attacked them for insolence.
The monkey escaped by saying that he had a cold and couldn't smell anything.
Thus thwarted, the lion pretended to be sick. "Oh," he groaned, "my stomach hurts."
"Is there anything that might make you feel better?" asked the royal physician.
"Monkey stew is the only possible cure!"
So even the sly monkey fell victim to the lion.

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Inspired by: Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Roger L'Estrange, 416.
Notes: This is Perry 514.

Here is an illustration by Grandville: