There was once a tiny beetle who one day wandered into a place where people had enjoyed a wild party the night before.
Seeing a puddle of liquor on the ground, the beetle started drinking, and soon he was drunk.
"I am so mighty," he yelled, "that the world cannot bear my weight!"
An elephant wandered by.
"I'm going to fight you, elephant!" the beetle boasted. "We'll see who is the most mighty!"
The elephant laughed as he pooped and peed on top of the beetle, killing the insect instantly.
The elephant then ran into the forest, trumpeting in triumph.
~ ~ ~
This is one of the hundreds of stories you can read in the Jataka Tales, a collection of Pali stories in which the Buddha teaches the monks with tales of his past lives. Each story begins with an incident involving the Monks, and then the Buddha tells a story which provides a lesson that is relevant to the incident. After he finishes telling the story, the Buddha then identifies the characters in the story as past incarnations. You can see how that works here, in a literal translation of this jataka story by W. D. Rouse: Gūthapāṇajātaka. You can read another translation here.
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