The Vulture and the Kite

A vulture boasted to a kite: 'No one has sharper eyes than mine.' The kite said, 'Don't let that pass so easily. Come, show me what you can spot across the plain.' They say the vulture gazed down from a height as far as a full day's journey below. He said, 'I see, believe me if you will, a single grain of wheat lying on the ground.' The kite could not contain his wonder, and together they dropped down from the sky. When the vulture swooped upon the grain, a long snare tightened around his leg. He never guessed that eating that one grain meant fate would fling its trap around his neck. Not every shell holds a pearl, and not every arrow finds its mark. The kite said, 'What good was seeing that grain when you couldn't see your enemy's trap?' They say he answered, his neck in the snare: 'Caution is no use against destiny.' When death reached out to shed his blood, fate itself sealed his keen, far-seeing eyes. In waters whose shore can never be seen, a swimmer's pride will do him no good.