The Lice and the Farmer
Once upon a time, in a peaceful village where golden fields stretched far, there lived a weary farmer. This man went to his field with the first light of morning and tried to earn his bread by hoeing the soil until evening. On a hot summer day he wiped the drops of sweat running down his forehead and withdrew to rest in the shade of a huge oak tree. While the coolness of the shade rested his eyes, a strange itching on his body began to spoil his comfort completely. The tiny lice hidden in the folds of his clothes kept biting the man's tired body without mercy. Unable to bear it any longer, the farmer quickly took off his old shirt and began to look for the source of the itching. When he looked carefully, he at once caught a small louse walking on the cloth.
Holding the louse tightly between two fingers, he decided to crush it. At that very moment the tiny louse, struggling for its life, began to speak in a very thin voice. "Please do not destroy me, o man, I am only a tiny creature!" it begged. "How much harm do you think I can do you? One drop of blood taken from your body will not make you poor," it said. The farmer looked angrily at this small creature between his fingers and drew a deep breath. "Your size may be small, but the discomfort and pain you cause are quite great," he replied. The louse spoke again with one last hope of living and went on asking for pardon.
The determined farmer was never deceived by these fancy and misleading words of the louse. "If I spare you, you will keep disturbing me and you will also multiply and ruin my labour," he said. The farmer, who knew very well that harms which seem small turn into great disasters in time, did not hesitate at all. Pressing his fingers tightly, he destroyed the troublesome louse then and there. Then he shook out his shirt and cleaned it, took a peaceful breath and returned to his work. Evils ignored because they seem small can in time completely destroy a person's peace and order. The snake's head is crushed while it is small.