A concept that distills the moral of the sparrow-and-stork fable in Section 11.

A tiny sparrow rebuilds its ancestral nest in the eaves of a mighty stork's dwelling. When mocked for matching so frail a body against so large a neighbor, the sparrow answers that a snake raids its nest every year and devours the young it has raised at great cost. This year it has fled the snake and taken shelter under the protection of the powerful stork, hoping the stork will win justice for it and turn the snake — which each year made the sparrow's chicks its food — into food for the stork instead.

Teaching points:

• The weak, unable to defeat an oppressor alone, may seek refuge with a stronger patron in order to obtain justice.
• Knowing what is right does not guarantee the power to act on it: the sparrow concedes it understands the value of independence yet cannot survive on that knowledge alone.
• Reciprocal justice: the predator that fed upon the defenseless is itself made prey by the protector.