Shah's Fables in the Way of the SufiWhen most people answer the question, "What is a fable?" they usually define it as a story with talking animals that teaches readers a lesson or moral. Although most fairy tales fall into this category, Idries Shah, author of many fairy tales, believes that there is more to a fairy tale than simply being an interesting story that teaches a lesson. In fact, Shah writes in the "Forward" part of his book Reflections: "Imagine that fairy tales exist only to entertain or educate, and are based on fiction? The best are delineations of what happens in real life, in the community." , and in the mental processes of the individual" (1, 2). What Shah means is that the best fables best describe the life, mental processes of an individual and the surrounding community. In "The Man, the Serpent and the stone", from his book Caravan of Dreams, Shaw provides information on what the mental processes of humans are and should be. The fable seems to be the story of a curious, but ignorant man, who desperately tries to justify his action of free the snake from under the stone so that the snake does not kill him. However, this fable shows the reader how selfish, thoughtless and unreasonable humans are towards their animal "friends" One thing this fable demonstrates to the reader it's how selfish humans are in their ways. The fable begins with the man picking up a stone and releasing a poisonous snake. The snake, of course, threatens to kill the man, but the man begs for his life because he claims of having freed the serpent. The man shouts, "Give me another chance. Please, let's find someone else to give an opinion, so that my life can be spared" (904). The man does not care how the snake was disturbed. All he cares about is trying to stop the snake from killing him. Another issue addressed by this fable is how inconsiderate man is towards the animals of this planet. The fable provides two examples of animals being treated unfairly. The first example tells of a flock of sheep that provided wool to humans for many years. Now, after all the years spent helping the humans, the humans turn around and repay the favor by killing sheep for mutton. A sheep adds sarcastically: "This is the measure of men's generosity" (904).