A Funny Academic Fable
From Indopedia
- The Rabbit's Thesis:
One sunny day a rabbit came out of her hole in the ground to enjoy the fine weather. The day was so nice that she became careless and a fox snuck up behind her and caught her. "I'm going to eat you for lunch!", said the fox. "Could you possibly wait a few days?", asked the rabbit. "Why?" replied the fox. "Well, I've almost finished my thesis. Its on The superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves, and it would be a shame to be eaten when I'm this close to finishing" "Are you crazy?" cried the fox, "What sort of research do you have to support your hypothesis? - everyone knows that a fox will always win out over a rabbit". "Not so" said the rabbit. "If you like, read it for yourself. If you're not convinced you can go ahead and have me for lunch".
Since the fox was curious he went into the rabbit hole with the rabbit. He never came out.
A few days later the rabbit was again taking a break from writing and sure enough, a wolf came out of the bushes and was ready to set upon her. "Wait!", cried the rabbit, "you can't eat me right now. And why might that be, my furry appetizer? I'm almost finished my thesis on The Superiority of Rabbits over Foxes and Wolves."
The wolf laughed so hard that it almost lost its grip on the rabbit. "Come and read it for yourself" said the rabbit, "You can eat me afterward if you disagree with my conclusions".
So the wolf went down into the rabbit? hole...and never came out.
The rabbit finished her thesis and was out celebrating in the local lettuce patch before boxing up the accumulated wisdom that had informed her thesis. In her rabbit hole the computer sat in one corner, to the right there was a pile of fox bones and to the left a pile of wolf bones. In the middle of the room was a large, well-fed lion.
The moral of the story:
The title of your thesis doesn't matter. The subject doesn't matter. All that matters is who your supervisor is.
