A cat, known in his circle of friends as a ferocious and stylish mouser, came upon a mouse clinging to the revolving blades of a fan. "Help!" the mouse shouted. "Turn off the fan before I'm cut to pieces!"

"Cut to pieces?" the cat asked with interest.

"Yes," said the mouse, clearly in a panic. "I was sleeping in the shade of these cool metal blades- it's a very hot day, you know- when a Person happened to turn on the fan. I got scooped right up, and now I can't get off! The fan is spinning much too fast!"

The cat sat down to think. He could turn off the fan and then gobble up the dizzy mouse. Perhaps that is what the Person, omnipotent as People are, had in mind when he turned the fan on. Or perhaps the Person had intended all along for the mouse to fall against the whirling blades. Then the cat could turn off the fan and lick up the mouse at his leisure. Yes, the cat decided, this certainly was the treat the Person had in mind for him. And he lay down to enjoy the poor mouse's plight and await its inevitable demise. But at that moment the fan flipped the mouse at great velocity into the face of the Person, who was coming to adjust the fan. In his surprise the Person accidentally kicked the cat into the fan which cut off the cat's head. The mouse ran away and the Person grieved for his dead cat.

...from a series of fables by Josh Landsman