173. the guilt of the tortoise

the tortoise woke up from a dream. in the dream, he was fat. he had eaten all of the lettuce in the world. because of his gluttony and greed, tortoises everywhere were starving.

the tortoise knew what the dream was about: yesterday, his friend the guru had asked him for lettuce, and the tortoise had lied and turned him away. he vowed to fix this mistake.

in truth, the guru had asked him for money, and the tortoise had misunderstood.

that night, the guru returned to his school exhausted from a day of begging and scheming for money to no avail. he would not be able to make his payments to the banker, and his school would be taken away from him. it was the worst thing he could possibly imagine, but he had come to accept it.

acceptance, he felt, was #zen.

but when he stepped into his school, he saw something that affected him deeply: in the middle of the lobby was a pile of lettuce, five heads high, and a note which read, “dear guru, i lied about the green. here is all that i have.”