A rat found a mirror in the forest one day. The mirror made anyone who looked into it appear larger than they were. When the rat looked into the mirror, and saw how tall and strong his reflection was, he thought that he was the greatest and the largest animal in the world. One day, a wise owl told the rat,“You think you are the strongest and the largest animal, but in fact, the elephant is the largest animal in the world. All the other animals fear him!”The rat was unconvinced, and so, he set off to look for the elephant, to challenge him to a fight.

When he arrived deep in the forest, he saw an animal who was as large as a small mountain with legs as thick as tree trunks. He asked loudly,“Are you an elephant?”The elephant looked around, but he did not see the rat. The rat had to climb atop a large rock before the elephant noticed him and replied,“Yes, I am an elephant.”The rat squeaked loudly,“I challenge you to a fight!”He beat his paw against the rock, to show the elephant his strength. However, the elephant was not impressed. He drew some water into his trunk, and sprayed it toward the rat. The rat was hit by the huge jet of water. He fell off the rock
and nearly drowned.

The rat finally realized that there were stronger and larger animals than him in the world.
His arrogance nearly cost him his life. From that day on, the rat stopped looking in the mirror and stopped being arrogant.

　　老鼠在森林裡撿到一面鏡子，無論誰照了這面鏡子，都會放大許多倍，老鼠看到鏡子中的自己又高大又強壯的樣子，就認為自己很了不起，是世界上最大的動物。有一天，見識豐富的貓頭鷹告訴老鼠：「你自以為是最強、最高大的動物，事實上大象才是這世界上最高大的動物，所有動物都怕他！」老鼠聽了很不服氣，於是他便出發去尋找大象，要和他較量。
　　當他來到森林深處時，看到一隻動物身體如小山一樣高大，腳像樹幹一樣粗，他大聲地問：「你是大象嗎？」大象四處張望，什麼也沒看見，直到老鼠跳到大石塊上，大象才發現他，就回答：「是的，我是大象。」老鼠高聲地尖叫著：「我要和你決鬥！」並用爪子拍打石頭，要讓大象知道他的力氣有多大。不過大象完全不為所動，接著，他吸了一鼻子的水，把水噴向老鼠，老鼠立刻被巨大的水柱從石頭沖下來，差點被淹死。
　　老鼠這才明白原來這世界上還有動物比他更強大，因為他的自大，才會落得這樣的下場，從此他不再照那面鏡子，也不敢自命不凡了。