In a town lived four friends. Three of them were very learned. That is, they knew everything written in books. But they had no sense.
The fourth one had not read so many books. But he had a lot of sense.
One day the four friends met. “What is the use of our knowledge ‘?” they said. “We must travel. Then we can put our knowledge to some use and earn some money.”
When they had gone a little way the eldest of them said, “Our fourth friend is stupid. He knows very little. When we earn money, we shall not share it with him. He should go back home.”
The second one said, “Yes, yes, he should go back home. But the third friend said, “No, no. You must not say that. He is our friend. We have played together since we were little boys. He shall have a share of the money we earn.”
The four friends went on. in a forest, they found the bones of an animal. One of them said, “These are the bones of some animal. Let us bring it back to life.”
The eldest said, “I know how to make a skeleton from the bones.” The second said, “I can give it skin, flesh and blood.” The third said, “I can give it life.” But the fourth friend, the only one who had sense, said : “No, no ! Please don’t do that. This is a lion. If you give him life, he will kill each one of us.”
“You know nothing,” said the third. must put my knowledge to the test.”
“In that case,” said the fourth, “wait a moment till I climb this big tree.”
He climbed up just as the lion came back to life. The lion roared and killed all the three friends. But the man of sense waited till the lion had gone. He then climbed down and went home.