Bragging Rites

Did it ever happen to you that things were going well until you decided to let everyone know how smart you were and thereby ruined everything? Pride can be treacherous. Bragging can be very destructive.


A Mongolian folktale about a frog goes like this:

Two geese were getting ready for their flight south for the winter when they were interrupted by a frog. The frog asked the geese to take him a long.

One of the geese agreed but only if the frog could figure a way for them to carry him. The frog thought and then produced a long reed of grass that the geese would hold in their beaks while the frog held tight to the middle of the reed with his mouth.

They flew their way southward when the threesome was noticed by a group of men on the ground.

The men stared and remarked how wonderful a device of conveyance this was and who was clever enough to devise it. That is when the proud frog opened his mouth to declared that he invented it. But when the frog spoke he lost his grip on the reed and fell to the earth dashing him to pieces.

The moral of the story is when you have a good thing going, keep your mouth shut.