Underfables: The Scribe Taken in Forgery

 The Scribe Taken in Forgery

            Once upon a time, a host of ghost scribes visited a Skeptic; and they 

bore with them the ghost of a scribe taken in forgery, in the very act. 

            The ghost scribes said, “He invented a fable, and he inserted it into 

a holy book, and now the people take the forgery as real. Shall we denounce 

him or not?”

            After much computation, the Skeptic replied, “May a scribe without 

lies cast the first curse!”

            Condemned by conscience, the ghosts departed, all but one. 

To that one the Skeptic said, “The verdict is: Not Proven. You didn’t do it, 

and don’t you dare do it again.”

            Moral:   Forgive this Fable!

               Commentary on the Underfable:
               The well-loved biblical tale which this Underfable plagiarizes is, alas, an "interpolation"; but I still like the story, as a story.