A Man never expects to get well and therefore feels safe in making promises he will never have to keep.
Chambry (Impossible Promises)
Note: The Chambry collection is published in Greek. AI was used to translate the Greek to this text:
A certain poor man, being sick and in a bad state, when he had lost hope in the doctors—because he had nothing to give them—called upon the gods and promised them, saying:
“O gods, glorious and greatest, if you grant me health, I will offer you a hundred oxen in sacrifice.” His wife asked him: “From where will you get these things if it happens that you recover?” And he replied to her: “Do you suppose I will recover, so that the gods might then demand these from me?”
Moral
The fable shows that many people readily promise things, but do not expect ever to perform them in deed.
How do you think an AI might simplify this fable? Here is one answer, and the illustration above was made from this simplification:
A sick and impoverished man, no longer able to hope for help from doctors, swears to the gods that he will sacrifice a hundred oxen if he recovers. When questioned by his wife about how he could possibly pay such a vow, he admits he never expects to get well—and therefore feels safe in making promises he will never have to keep.
Moral
People easily make extravagant promises when they do not expect to be held accountable.
Perry. #34