There were some Cranes who made their feeding grounds on some plowed lands newly sown with wheat in a farm.
For a long time the Farmer, waving an empty sling, chased them away by the terror he inspired; but when the birds found that the sling was only waved in the air, they stopped to take any notice of it and would not move.
The Farmer, on seeing this, filled his sling with stones, and killed a great number.
The remaining birds at once flied away from his
fields, crying to each other, "It is time for us
to be off to Liliput: for this man is no longer
content to scare us, but begins to show us in
earnest what he can do."
Moral: If words suffice not, blows
must follow.