# Scorpion and the Tortoise

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Posted by Rick [Rick] on November 24, 1999 at 20:02:46 {BlpRHB6gpcOL4VPHgCQsFMFBt36Xyc}:

I thought perhaps the few who have used H2O over the years for their own agendas without any desire to see JWs work out their problems, will uneasily laugh this one off. It will always stick to the backs of your minds like peanut butter sticks to the roof of the mouth. Enjoy. ;-)

(And for the rest of the brothers and sisters, and majority of caring persons visiting this site, perhaps you will benefit in seeing the affect this has on those few, and find other applications to this fable too?)

Rick

The Scorpion and the Tortoise
  A scorpion and a tortoise became such fast friends that they took a vow that they would never separate. So when it happened that one of them was obliged to leave his native land, the other promised to go with him. They had traveled only a short distance when they came to a wide river. The scorpion was now greatly troubled.

  "Alas," he said, "you, my friend, can easily swim, but how can a poor scorpion like me ever get across this stream?"

  "Never fear," replied the tortoise; "only place yourself squarely on my broad back and I will carry you safely over."

  No sooner was the scorpion settled on the tortoise's broad back, than the tortoise crawled into the water and began to swim. Halfway across he was startled by a strange rapping on his back, which made him ask the scorpion what he was doing.

  "Doing?" answered the scorpion. "I am whetting my sting to see if it is possible to pierce your hard shell."

  "Ungrateful friend," responded the tortoise, "it is well that I have it in my power both to save myself and to punish you as you deserve." And straightway he sank his back below the surface and shook off the scorpion into the water.

  [Source: The Tortoise and the Geese and other Fables of Bidpai, retold by Maude Barrows Dutton (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908), pp. 12-13.]

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