Chapter 203
One hot summer’s day, a traveller hired an ass to carry him from Athens to Megara. At noon the sun’s heat was so scorching that he dismounted and wanted to relax under the ass’s shadow. But the driver of the ass claimed that he had equal rights to the spot and wanted to sit there, too.
“What!” cried the traveller. “Didn’t I hire the ass for the entire journey?”
“Yes,” answered the driver, “you hired the ass but not the ass’s shadow.”
While they were arguing and fighting for the place, the ass took to his heels and ran away.
In quarreling about the shadow of things we often lose the substance.
