The Goat That Became a Dog

A holy man was carrying a healthy goat home on his shoulders. Three clever rogues who wanted the goat hatched a plan. One by one, they passed him on the road.

The first asked, “Why carry a dog on your shoulders?” The second, further on, said, “What a strange man, carrying a dog!” By the time the third said the same, the puzzled man began to doubt himself.

“Perhaps it really is a dog,” he thought, and set the goat down and walked away — and the three rogues happily carried it off. He had let others' words confuse what he plainly knew.