The Pig and His Way of Life

The pig lived in way that pigs always live and would never have worried about it at all, if it was not for the continuous taunts of the cow. 'What a lovely life you've got!' his companion would sneer. 'Leftovers for lunch and muck for a bed!' In the end, even the pig himself was convinced that he could not go on living this way and he went to see the judge.

'All the other animals on the farm get good food and they have clean stalls', he said. 'Why can't I enjoy a better standard of living as well?'

'You're right!' declared the judge. 'From now on, they must give you grain and peas for dinner, and you must have silk sheets on your bed.' The pig rushed home to his sty, impatient to give the good news to his wife. 'Grain, peas and silken sheets!' he repeated to himself happily all the way home.

But the now, hoowever, had taunted him so many times with 'leftovers and muck', that the words had become fixed in his mind. Thus, when his wife asked him what the judge had decided their way of life should be, he replied automatically: 'It went perfectly. From this day on we shall dine on leftovers and we shall sleep on muck!'