The Trickster

A trickster had wagered someone that he would prove the oracle of Delphi a liar. On the appointed day he took a little sparrow in his hand and, hiding it under his cloak, went to the temple. There, standing before the oracle, he asked whether the thing he held in his hand was alive or lifeless. He meant, if the god answered "lifeless," to show the living sparrow; if it said "living," to produce the sparrow after strangling it. But the god, seeing through his crafty intent, replied, "Enough, man; for it rests with you whether what you hold is dead or alive."