Self- Deception

It is part of human nature always to judge others very severly and, when the wind turns against us, always to find an excuse for our own misdeeds, or to blame someone else for our mistakes. They story that follows illustrates what I mean.


A messenger was sent on an urgent mission to a distant city. He saddled up his horse ans set off at a gallop. After passing several inns where animals like him were normally fed, the horse thought: " We aren't stopping to eat at any stables, which means that I'm being treated, not like a horse, but like a human being. Like all other men, I will eat in the next big city we reach."


But the big citites all passed by, one after the other, and his rider continued on his way. The horse began to think: " Perhaps I haven't been changed into a human being after all, but into an angel, because angels have no need to eat."

Finally, they reached their destination and the animal was led t othe stable, where he greedily devoured the hay he found there.

" Why believe that things have changed simply because they do not happen quite as expected?" he said to himself. " I'm not a man or an angel. I'm simply a hungry horse."