Microstory 1294: The Flies and the Gnats

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A business of flies was so tired of having to hunt for food. They wanted to find a consistent and endless supply of resources, without having to work for it. Meanwhile, a cloud of gnats would scold them for thinking this way. “You should want to work for your food,” the gnats would say. “You will feel better for it.” But the flies were not convinced. They knew there was something else out there, so they sent scouts out to the unknown lands, in search of exactly what they were looking for. Finally, they found it in the form of a dumpster behind a restaurant. This was where the business of flies decided to live. The restaurant always dumped their leftovers at the end of the night, without fail, and it was always full of tasty treats. This went on for generations to come. The gnats, on the other hand, continued to travel from house to house. Whenever they exhausted the resources they had found there, there was nothing else they could do but move on to the next. Some houses were kept cleaning, and were no good. One night, the cloud thought it had discovered a great source of honey. “This is amazing,” the said. “We worked hard, and did not give up, and this is our reward.” But the honey was a trap...literally. While they were busy applauding themselves for their work ethic, a human came by and sucked them all up into a vacuum cleaner.

This story was inspired by, and revised from, an Aesop Fable called The Flies and the Honeypot.