“A HEN who had lost her sight, and was accustomed to scratching up the earth in search of food, although blind, still continued to scratch away most diligently. Of what use was it to the industrious fool?
Another sharp-sighted hen who spared her tender feet, never budged from her side, and enjoyed, without scratching, the fruit of the other’s labour.
For as often as the Blind Hen scratched up a barleycorn, her watchful companion devoured it.”
_________
Is Lessing – the German dramatist, critic, and writer on philosophy and aesthetics (1729-1781) – suggesting, in this fable, that the deceitful hen is right in taking advantage of her blind companion? Would he extend this exploitation to humans?
For Lessing, the blind hen is an “industrious fool”; and what of the “sharp sighted” hen? An enterprising fowl. The able taking advantage of the disabled. Or, worse, not only taking advantage but speeding up the blind hen’s famine.
With a bit of kindness – also known in evolutionary science as cooperation and collaboration – these two could become a tag team, sharing what’s found. My blogs on Tom the Turkey and Henny Penny depict the animal world’s pecking orders.
We like to think humans are above this dog-eat-dog mindset, but, each of us probably can identify how some humans are not far removed from animal level cruelty. Routinely, the “anti-social media” erupts with hissy fits.
My recent blog on the bumptious among us, offers some explanations of how we get that way.
Social pathologues, while few in number, despise those with different perspectives and willingly seek to stifle and persecute those they deem unredeemable.
Fortunately, many more humans tend to cooperate and to exhibit kindness and fairness.
P.S.
Lessing’s fable brings to mind a couple workplace scenarios.
One is of someone, like the “sharp-sighted hen who spared her tender feet”, who followed in the footsteps of a diligent predecessor.
That previous incumbent had done good work, but had lost the support of a new administration. He’d been sidelined in a shabby manner.
The new comer benefited from the previous leader’s actions; even so, he never acknowledged the good foundation.
Another example is that of a department head who made major improvements in the work of his unit but ruffled the feathers of vested interests.
The department head soon found himself on the outside looking in since new leadership had little interest in past achievements and had been swayed by the grievances of those with the ruffled feathers. His improvements stayed, but the department head did not.
I include these two stories to illustrate how fables can trigger discussion on work place ethics and how we treat each other.
But, for a fable to do that, the reader has to think.
When I was leading workshops, those that had thinking participants did well, those that did not were not much fun.
The latter often had participants who came to be entertained or who saw the workshop as a free day.
I never figured out what to do with those unhappy participants.
*SOURCE: Lessing, “The Blind Hen” in Fables, Book I, No. 30. Translated by G. Moir Bussey. Excerpted From: Cooper, Frederic Taber, 1864-1937. “An argosy of fables; a representative selection from the fable literature of every age and land.” New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. 1921.
N.B. For other essays on numerous topics on leadership and literature and fables go to my Nucleus archive from 2010-early 2025.
© Copyright commentary by John Lubans 2026