A Fable a Day — Day Four — Aesop’s “The Woman and the Fat Hen”

Photo by Emiel Maters on Unsplash

“A woman owned a hen that laid an egg every morning. Since the hen’s eggs were of excellent quality, they sold for a good price. So, at one point, the woman thought to herself, “If I double my hen’s allowance of barley, she’ll lay twice a day.” Therefore, she put her plan to work, and the hen became so fat and contented that it stopped laying altogether.

Relying on statistics does not always produce results.”

Statistics can be tricky. You can re-work them to your advantage for any argument. Nearly every statistic you might be able to use in an argument will have another side to it that can be used in a well-rounded counter argument. Results never happen — just an endless cycle of who uses their statistics correctly for the argument they wish to construct.

Although today’s fable focuses on statistics and producing results, I’d like to point out that part of the moral of this fable has a lot to do with greed. One egg a day from one good hen was enough for the owner to overfeed her hen, knowing she would likely make more money if she could somehow force the hen to produce more eggs. The hen, as well, took pleasure in the overindulgence of barley to the point that the pampering turned her “useless” in providing eggs (I say “useless” because I do not view hens as only existing to produce…