A man had a mule, a mare and a sow. He gave the sow all it wanted to eat, but to the mule and the mare he gave just what they needed.

The mare said to the mule, “What is this fool doing? To us who work for him he gives just what we need to eat, but to the sow—who does nothing—he gives as much as she wants.”

The mule said to the mare, “The time will come when you will see the sow’s downfall, for he is not feeding her for her benefit, but for his.”

When the festival of the gentiles came (the first day of the month of the Roman calendar, usually celebrated as a feast day), they killed the sow and ate it.

--Esther Rabbah 7:1

NOTES