---

🐐 The Man With One Little Goat

There was once a man who claimed to be in charge of twenty or thirty cities, if anybody had the patience to count that high. He wore his importance like a badge, and spent most of his days reminding folks of it.

Next door lived another man whose whole empire was one little goat. That was all — just one. And it wasn’t even a milk goat, since milking a billy is a harder proposition than most men care to try.

This goat had one duty: munch the grass. And munch it did, so long as the man held the end of a little string to keep it pointed the right direction. Some say goats don’t much care for grass, preferring brush and briars, but this one seemed content. Maybe it wasn’t a goat at all, but so long as the grass disappeared, nobody complained.

One afternoon, the neighbor with the lawn mower stopped in his tracks, wiping sweat from his brow. “Good heavens,” he gasped, “it’s exhausting pushing this mower all day.”

The man with the goat smiled, tugged the string gently, and said, “Why sir, that is a brilliant and astute observation.”

And the goat kept right on munching.

---

Moral:

Some men manage cities, some men manage goats. But the cleverest man of all lets the goat manage the grass.