Strange Meetings

Once upon a time a man was on a journey and he met a mare who grazed in the
meadow. She was thin, lean, and had only skin and bone. He went on until he
came to a place where he found a mare which was fat, although she did not
eat. He went on further until he met a sheep which kicked against a rock
till evening to pass the night there. Advancing he met a serpent which hung
in a hole from which it could not get out. Farther on, he saw a man who
played with a ball, and his children were old men. He came to an old man
who said to him:

"I will explain all that to you. The lean mare which you saw represents the
rich man whose brothers are poor. The fat mare represents the poor man
whose brothers are rich. The serpent which swings unable to enter nor to
leave the hole is the picture of the word which once spoken and heard can
never go back. The sheep which kicks against the rock to pass the night
there, is the man who has an evil house. The one whose children you saw
aged while he was playing ball, what does he represent? That is the man who
has taken a pretty wife and does not grow old. His children have taken bad
ones."