The Lion and the Wolf

God placed two flocks of sheep on the grassland, one in the east and one in the west. God also assigned two kinds of natural enemies to the sheep: lions and wolves. God said to the sheep, ``If you want wolves, you get one, which can bite you at will. If you want lions, you get two, and you can choose one of the two lions at any time and also switch between them whenever you want.''

(So, would you choose a wolf or a lion?)

The eastern flock thought: lions are much fiercer than wolves, so it’s better to have a wolf. So they asked for one wolf. The western flock thought: although lions are fiercer than wolves, we have the choice right, so we want lions. So they asked for two lions.

After the wolf entered the eastern flock, it started eating sheep. The wolf was small and had a small appetite, one sheep could feed it for several days. Thus, the sheep were hunted only once every few days.

The western flock picked one lion, leaving the other lion with God. This lion entered the flock and also started eating sheep. The lion was not only fiercer than the wolf but had a huge appetite, needing to eat one sheep every day. So the flock was hunted daily, terrified and panicked. The sheep quickly asked God to change the lion. Unexpectedly, the lion kept by God did not eat anything and was starving. It pounced on the flock and bit even more ferociously than the first lion. The flock spent all day running for their lives and barely had time to eat grass.

The eastern flock was glad they chose the right enemy and mocked the western flock for having no insight. The western flock deeply regretted it and complained bitterly to God, asking to change their enemy to a wolf. God said, ``Once the enemy is chosen, it cannot be changed and must stay for generations. You can only choose between the two lions.''

The western flock had no choice but to keep switching between the two lions. But both lions were equally ferocious, whichever one they chose, it was worse than the eastern flock. They decided not to switch anymore — let one lion eat well and grow fat, while the other starved and grew thin. Seeing the thin lion almost starve to death, the flock then asked God to change the lion.

After a long period of starvation, the thin lion gradually realized a truth: though extremely fierce, it could not take on a hundred sheep. More importantly, its fate was controlled by the sheep. The sheep could send it back to God at any time, forcing it to endure hunger, or possibly starve to death. Understanding this, the thin lion became very polite to the flock, only eating dead or sick sheep and leaving healthy sheep alone. The flock was overjoyed, and some lambs suggested fixing the choice on the thin lion and not having the fat lion anymore. An old ram warned, ``The thin lion is kind to us because it fears being sent back to God to starve. If the fat lion dies, we lose our choice, and the thin lion will soon revert to its ferocious nature.’’ The flock thought the old ram made sense and quickly switched the fat lion back in to prevent it from starving.

The originally fat lion was now just skin and bones, but it also learned that its fate was controlled by the sheep. To stay longer on the grassland, it began to court the flock, helping find water and pastures, and even protecting the flock from the eastern wolf by intimidating, threatening, and fighting it. The lion sent back to God was so sad it shed tears.

After many hardships, the western flock finally lived happily. Meanwhile, the eastern flock’s situation grew worse. Without competition, the wolf ran wild. It bit dozens of sheep to death daily, no longer eating the meat but drinking the blood. It forbade the sheep from crying out — anyone who cried would be bitten to death. Worse still, the wolf selected some fat sheep from the eastern flock and regularly tributed them to the western lions to avoid being harassed. The eastern flock could only lament in their hearts: ``If we had known this earlier, we might as well have chosen two lions.''