One day, a man was going into the desert and saw a snake burning in a fire.
He put his staff into the fire and saved the snake.
The snake climbing the staff, went into a defensive mode to sting the man.
The man asked him: What are you doing? I saved you from the fire.
The snake responded: Don't you know that the response for goodness is badness?
The man replied: What are you saying? Goodness must be responded with goodness.
The discussion went up yet the snake would not accept it. Finally, they decided to ask 3 people for judgment.
So they journeyed on until they reached a spring. They asked the spring for its judgment
The spring stated "I agree with the snake. The response to goodness is badness."
The man replied "How? How can this be?"
The spring said, "Sit here and watch."
The man soon saw a passerby come to the spring and drank from its cold and pure water and washed his face.
He then blew his nose and threw it into the spring and went away.
The spring said: Did you see? He drank from my water and quenched his thirst and washed his face; why did he blow his nose (inside me) then?
The man said, "Let us go to another person."
They went until they came to a tree.
They told the tree about the story and the tree too confirms that the snake was right.
The man asked "How? How can this be?"
The tree said, "Sit here and watch."
They saw a tired shepherd come and sit in the shade of the tree to rest. He then picked up some fruits from the tree and ate them.
In the end when he was about to leave; He broke a branch of the tree and took it with himself.
The tree said "Oh man, you saw it, did you not? He rested under my shade; ate my fruits to get energy, then why must it be that he would harm me and brake my branch. Do you now see that the response to goodness is badness?"
The man replied "This cannot be. we must ask one final judge."
The man and the snake continued their journey until they got to a fox.
They told the story to the fox and asked for his judgment.
As the fox was very sly, he said "I cannot judge this way. We must make a fire and the snake must go into the fire and you (man), must take him out, and only then I'll judge.
Both sides, the man and the snake accepted the deal.
They made a fire and threw the snake into it.
As the man was going to put his staff into the fire to aid the snake;
The fox said "What are you doing? Didn't you learn a lesson that the response to goodness is goodness and badness is badness? Let the snake burn in the fire of his ignorance and save your own life."
The man finally accepted and thanked the fox for his help. The fox said goodbye to the man and went away.
The man was still standing beside the fire and watching the snake burning when a hunter came to him.
The hunter asked "Have you seen anything for me to hunt around here? A rabbit, a fox, or something."
The man said "Minutes ago, a fox went this way."
As he pointed to the direction the fox took.
The hunter went and after a while, he came back with the fox's corpse, almost dead and with a few breaths.
With those final breaths, the fox said to the man "Do you now see that the response to goodness is badness?"
The fox continued "If I hadn't saved you from the snake, I wouldn't die today."
Indeed. Normally, the response to goodness was badness. it was abnormal to respond in good.