Man is Cunning & Cunning is Man

ONCE WHEN THE WORLD FIRST BEGAN, a Donkey went to see a Lion about Man.

Lion, who had not yet seen Man and who didn't know what a Man looked like, asked Donkey the exact nature of his complaint.

"Well, Man puts heavy loads on my back and hits me to make me go faster, even though he can't carry half the weight I can."

Lion thought this was unfair and decided that Donkey was hard done by. "I'll sort this Man creature out for you" he said.
"What does he look like"?

"Well for a start, he only has two legs instead of four. He can neither bray nor roar, and he doesn't have much fur".

How about scales? Does he have any scales or other distinguising features? "None that I know of", said Donkey. "Though he does have hands"

"Hands"? said Lion.
"They're a bit like paws without claws", said Donkey.

"Well he shouldn't be too hard to find", said Lion. And he set out to teach Man a lesson for being so cruel.

Soon, Lion came across the first Man he had ever seen.
Now, Donkey’s description had been pretty good, but Lion wanted to make sure he wasn’t about to eat up the wrong creature. After all, birds only had two legs, and they couldn’t bray or roar either.

“Are you Man”? asked Lion.
Fortunately the man was a bit of a trickster, “No”, he said, “I’m Cunning”. “Well, it is Man I’m looking for, not Cunning. Why are you here?

“I’m on my way to see Donkey. He’s asked me to build a cage for him”, said Man. This annoyed Lion. Remember, all this took place when the world first began, and Lion had no more idea what a cage was than what a Man was.

Still, he felt that being a Lion, and therefore a more important animal than a Donkey, he should have a cage first.

“If you want to see this day through, then you’d better forget Donkey”, threatened Lion. “It is me you should be making a cage for”

“I quite agree”, said Man. “In my opinion it would suit you far better than Donkey”.

THEN Man set about making the strongest cage he could, and when it was finished he invited Lion to step inside. Lion obliged, and Man slammed shut the Cage door.

“Why are you doing this to me”? cried Lion. “My enemy is Man, not Cunning”.

“Man is Cunning”. Said the Man.