The Patient Buffalo and the Mischievous Monkey

A large, gentle buffalo grazed peacefully each day in a meadow frequented by a mischievous young monkey, who had made a game of tormenting him in every way he could invent: pulling his tail sharply, leaping onto his back uninvited, blocking his path to fresh grass just to watch him walk around, and mocking him loudly the entire time. The buffalo, remarkably, never once reacted with anger, simply continuing his grazing as though nothing at all had happened.

Another animal, watching this daily torment, finally asked the buffalo why he tolerated such disrespect from a creature so much smaller and weaker than himself, when a single kick or charge could easily end the monkey's mischief for good. The buffalo considered the question calmly before answering.

"If I chase him off today," he explained, "he will only come back tomorrow with some new mischief, and I will have spent my energy and peace of mind on a battle that settles nothing permanently. His teasing costs me nothing real — my grass still grows, my strength is unharmed, my day continues regardless. But my anger, if I let it take hold, would cost me my calm for the rest of the day, and quite possibly invite a real injury to one of us in a fight that was never necessary to begin with." True to the buffalo's patience, the monkey, receiving no reaction to feed his game, eventually grew bored of tormenting someone who simply would not be provoked, and wandered off in search of a more satisfying target elsewhere — the buffalo's peace outlasting the monkey's mischief entirely on its own.