The Mice and the Elephants

A herd of elephants passed daily through a ruined city where thousands of mice lived. Many mice were crushed under their feet. The mouse king respectfully asked the elephant king to use another path.

The elephant king agreed. Some elephants laughed, "What help can mice ever give us?" But the king replied, "No creature is too small for respect."

Later hunters trapped the elephants with ropes. The mouse king brought his people, and they gnawed through the ropes. The elephants were freed by those they had once spared.