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> in the first story in Grimm's Fairy Tales

It's the second story. The first is the "frog prince".

> The cat then proceeds to eat the mouse.

Even the english Wikipedia article does not mention the most important part:

    When she beholds the empty pot, enlightenment dawns on the mouse: "First 'Top-off,' " she murmurs, "then 'Half-gone,' and then ..." The cat warns her to say no more, but the mouse persists. The cat pounces on the mouse and eats her up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_and_Mouse_in_Partnership#P...

The mouse says "All-gone" and is than eaten because of that. And the first version does not contain the phrase

   "And that is the way of the world," the story closes.
at the end, it ends with the cat eating the mouse



Yeah dang I just read the original version and the moral is a double whammy of don't fool yourself into being deceived/oppressed by a predator, but if you do, don't ever call them out on it!


Wait, isn't the mouse screwed from the beginning though?

One read I get is that the cat is making friends with the mouse so that, specifically in the lean times, it'll be able to eat his "friend", while also not sacrificing any hard-earned payoff in the good times.


The mouse only reached self knowledge at the end. One should work on it sooner.


The universality of these truths I think is exemplified by the same principles being expressed by Sun Tzu and others.




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