The White Lotus Today

The tiger then ate the white lotus.

The story is a satirical fable about self-help, positive thinking, and the limits of pacifism. by James Thurber The tiger, having finished his morning ablutions, stretched himself, yawned, and then remarked to the white lotus, "I am king of beasts." The White Lotus

The moral of this fable is that the possession of a perfect philosophy is not everything. The tiger then ate the white lotus

"Of course you are," replied the white lotus. "And I am the flower of the field." having finished his morning ablutions

Here is the complete text of — a short story by the American writer and humorist James Thurber . It was first published in The New Yorker in 1935 and later collected in Let Your Mind Alone! (1937).