Believing and Not Believing
Once upon a time, beyond the bright green valleys, there was an ancient forest where golden leaves whispered to one another. In this enchanted forest there lived a naive wolf who believed every word at once and a wise owl who doubted every whisper. The wolf was taken in by every sweet lie that reached his ear and wandered the peaceful paths of the forest always building dreams. The wise owl, on the other hand, watched all around from the branch of a lofty plane tree and never gave up following the trail of truth. One day the cunning fox made a clever plan to turn the head of this naive wolf. The fox came up to the wolf and told him that streams of sweet honey were flowing in the river behind the valley.
The naive wolf, his eyes shining, believed this sweet tale at once and decided to run towards the river. The wise owl on the branch glided down calmly, perched in front of the wolf and stopped him with a warning. The owl stressed that there was no honey in the river, but dangerous traps set by hunters. But the wolf paid no heed to the bitter warning of truth and would not believe the owl's words at all. Clinging to the tempting lie the fox offered seemed sweeter to him than the plain truth the owl had shown. The wolf proudly refused the owl's friendly advice and went on running quickly towards the river.
The cunning fox drew aside, chuckled and began to watch this innocence with pleasure. When the wolf reached the riverbank, instead of honey he fell into the sharp hunter's net that awaited him. Paying the heavy price of running after a lie, the wolf became more and more tangled in the knots of the net the more he struggled. The owl, watching him from afar, took pity and cut the rope with blows of her beak, saving the wolf with difficulty. Looking at his dreams sunk in the river and at his own ignorance, the wolf understood his mistake with pain. From that day on the naive wolf learned to listen to bitter truths instead of blindly believing sweet lies. A person must believe not the sweet lies he wishes to hear, but the bitter truths that protect him. One does not go down a well on a liar's rope.