Demades was a famous Greek speaker. One day, he was speaking to a crowd of people in Athens, the capital of Greece. He was speaking words of wisdom, but the people were not listening to him.
Demades noticed that the crowd was not paying attention to his speech. He stopped speaking for a few moments.
Then, Demades said, “One day, Ceres was travelling with a Swallow and an Eel.”
Everyone fell silent at once. The crowd was listening to Demades now He continued, “The three of them reached a river. The Eel swam across the river and the Swallow flew over it.”
Then, Demades did not finish his story, but started the speech he was giving before starting the story.
Now, all the people let out a great cry. All of them shouted, “But what about the story? What happened to Ceres? How did she cross the river?”
To this, wise Demades replied, “What about Ceres? She is a Goddess. She was one and she will remain so. All of you want to hear the end of an unnecessary story, but no one was listening when I was speaking words of wisdom.”
Learn the necessary without wasting time in foolery.