The Mice in Council

A community of mice, troubled endlessly by a particularly clever house cat, gathered in a grand council to debate solutions. Ideas ranged from digging deeper tunnels to organizing group escapes, but nothing seemed to solve the fundamental problem of never knowing when the cat would strike next.

A clever young mouse finally proposed hanging a small bell around the cat's neck, so its jingling would warn every mouse of its approach — a plan so obviously brilliant that the entire gathering erupted in cheers, certain their troubles were solved forever.

As the celebration wound down, a sensible elder mouse asked the one question no one had considered: who, exactly, would walk up to the cat and tie the bell around her neck? The excited chamber fell into complete silence. Every mouse, so eager to endorse a clever plan, discovered he was equally eager to let someone else carry it out — and the meeting ended, as such meetings often do, with a brilliant idea and absolutely no volunteer to make it real.