The Fly on the Cartwheel
Once upon a time there was a steep slope that ran along the edge of a broad plain where golden ears of grain rippled. While the sun blazed right overhead, a heavy and magnificent caravan wagon drawn by four strong horses was climbing it very slowly. And on the iron-clad wheel of the wagon there perched a small, insolent fly who took himself for a giant. As the wheel turned, the thick cloud of dust that rose all around veiled the proud fly's eyes completely. This fly, who cared nothing at all for the weight of the load the horses were pulling, began to watch his surroundings boastfully. The fly, stretching his wings with a swagger, buzzed merrily and made his place upon the wheel still firmer. "Just look at this enormous cloud of dust that I am raising!" he cried, calling out to the birds around him.
"Were it not for my strength, this huge wagon could never have got over that steep slope!" he boasted. The weary horses, sweating in great beads as they climbed the slope, paid no heed at all to this comical conceit of the fly. But an old ant standing at the side of the road could no longer keep silent before this ridiculous sight. The ant called out: "Hey there, little friend, you are only a parasite crawling on the backs of those who pull the load!" The fly grew angry at these words and snapped: "How dare you belittle my immense strength and my labour!" He went on puffing out his chest, taking the dust flung up at every turn of the wheel for a work of his own victory. However, when they came to the steepest and rockiest place of the road, the jolting of the wagon increased enormously.
The strong horses strained their muscles of steel and with one last effort rolled the wheels up to the summit. A great lump of mud that flew up hurled the proud fly from the wheel to the ground in an instant. The fly, left lying in the dust, watched in amazement as the wagon sped away even without him. Not the slightest trace remained either of the storm he thought he had raised or of that great strength of his. With the shame of having thought his own small existence enormous beside those who do the true labour, he hid himself among the bushes. Those who rise by the labour of others and take their own shadow for a giant are doomed to learn the truth by the wind of reality. The empty ear of grain stands upright.