"Fetch me something easy to kill!" the aged lion said to the fox who served him.
The fox found a starving donkey.
"You look hungry!" the fox said to the donkey. "I'll show you a pasture of fresh green grass!"
The donkey followed the fox, but the lion leaped too soon and the donkey escaped.
"Come back!" said the fox. "That was just a lion-illusion conjured by a magician. There's no lion."
So the fox persuaded the donkey to follow him again.
This time, the lion caught the donkey and killed him, and both lion and fox enjoyed a feast.
Inspired by: The English prose version of Rumi in More Tales from the Masnavi by A. J. Arberry.
Notes: This is story 150 in the book. Compare the Indian folktale: The Lion-King and the Jackal. The fox steals the heart and liver for himself, but claims the donkey had no heart or liver because no creature would be such a fool or a coward otherwise.
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