Written By Eugene Morgan
An old man was in his garden, when a lion approached him and said,
“I’m going to eat you.”
“Oh?” asked surprisingly the old man, “I knew my death would be certain but not by you.”
“Then who were you expecting?” asked the lion.
“A large pack of spotted hyenas,” replied the old man, “I’m honored to die at the mouth of a lion—King of the Beasts! If you are going to kill me then make it swift and sure. But you must be warned that after killing me, the spotted hyenas will smell a fresh scent of my flesh. As you know the spotted hyenas will loot a lion’s kill. Therefore, you will have to drag me for cover if you want to eat all of me. So would you prefer a small part or the whole portion of me?” asked the old man.
“I would prefer the whole portion, but that seems unrealistic. If I kill you here, I will run the risk of only eating a small portion of you before the large pack of spotted hyenas arrive at the scene,” said the lion.
“That’s right!” said the old man. Although you are the King of the Beasts, you’re in the hyenas’ territory.”
The old man curiously asked, “Don’t you smell the scent of the hyenas?”
“Not until you asked me, but I’m a hungry lion.”
“Yes indeed you are but the hyenas smell the scent of you. In fact, during our conversation, they’ve been watching you all the long waiting for you to kill.”
The old man suggested that the lion roar if he wanted to scare off the spotted hyenas, but the lion lost his appetite. The old man asked, “how come?”
The lion said, “Somehow you left a bad taste in my mouth.”