The Fox and the Geese

A fox, coming upon a flock of geese resting by a pond, announced he intended to eat them all, one at a time. The terrified geese begged for at least the mercy of choosing the order in which they would be eaten and saying a final prayer before each was taken, and the fox, seeing no harm in the small delay, agreed.

The geese, granted this small window of time, began their prayers — but stretched them out deliberately, one goose praying at length, then pausing, then another beginning a fresh prayer, each carefully drawing out the ritual for as long as they possibly could, buying precious minutes with each performance of piety.

The prolonged praying continued so long, in fact, that a farmer, alerted by the unusual commotion of geese near his pond, arrived to investigate and drove the frustrated fox away before he could eat even a single one. The geese, through nothing more than clever, patient stalling, had turned a granted mercy into complete salvation — proving that even in the most desperate circumstance, buying time itself can be the difference between disaster and survival.