A merchant in a certain country far away relied upon a pasha for protection. And the service wasn’t cheap, a fact he often could be heard bewailing.
Three other officers, of lower rank, one day proposed to do the job for less than what he paid the pasha.
“Sure,” he said, and hired them.
Soon the pasha heard the news, and was advised by his informants to anticipate his rivals, and dispatch them with a message for Muhammad to the afterlife—before they did the same to him, and sent him, poisoned maybe, to protect what traders he in paradise could find.
The pasha, undismayed, betook himself to parley with the merchant. His demeanor was relaxed and trusting, and inspired trust.
“I’ve heard, my friend,” he said, “you’re leaving me. I hold no grudge, and know that you’re too good a man to wish me harm. As far as I’m concerned, the matter’s closed. These fellows you have chosen to replace me merit, though, a word. I will be brief, and speak in apologue: —There was a shepherd who had a mastiff. People asked him, ‘Why a mastiff? He’s so large, and eats so much! I’d give him to the village squire, if I were you, and get myself some mongrels, two or three, say, which would cost me less to feed and keep a better watch upon the flock as well.’ But what they didn’t say was that a mastiff’s thrice as good as three small dogs for keeping wolves at bay. The sheep knew that; the shepherd should have. But the scoundrel gave his dog away in trade for three less hungry and less formidable curs—with what result, I leave to your imagination. Well?”
“I think,” the merchant said, “I’ll stick with you.”
This fable, like the pasha’s, has a moral.
One king is better for a nation, since his strength exceeds the several petty princes’.