The Tadpole and the Frog

A frog speaks to a tadpole and tells it to be ashamed of itself. A tadpole is a young frog at the stage when it still has a tail. The older frog then compares the young creature with its own past. It claims that when it was a tadpole, it did not have a tail.

Instead of accepting this criticism, the tadpole gives a quick answer. It says that this is exactly what it thought: the older frog was never a tadpole at all.

The short fable ends with that reply. The frog's claim about its own youth has failed to impress the younger creature. By denying that it once had the feature of a tadpole, the frog gives the tadpole a reason to question its whole account of the past. There is no further reply from the frog, and no later event is described.