enta’resdul
Fable Nine
The Tale of Two Herders
wo guar herders met in the market square, preparing to sell their stock.
²The shorter of the two laughed at the other and jeered,
“You bring only one guar to market?
³Look upon my herd! I have brought ten and twenty and stand to make a fortune!”
⁴The tall herder merely shook his head.
“You may have ten and twenty guars, but they are scrawny and frail. ⁵Better to have one steady beast than a hundred sickly ones.”
⁶The short herder released an oafish chuckle and prepared to usher his beasts into the pens. ⁷Just then, a great ash storm arrived and pummeled the market with howling winds and choking fumes.
Eventually, the storm relented. ⁸The tall herder and his great, strong guar were unharmed, but the short herder’s guars were thrown this way and that, and not one of them had survived.
⁹“Do you see now, my friend?” the tall herdsman said. “Numbers are no substitute for quality.”