Rouster was a rooster.  Rouster’s job was to roust everyone awake at dawn.  Rouster enjoyed the sense of power that his job gave him.  But Rouster had a problem.  Rouster was an insomniac.  He couldn’t sleep at night.

Rouster went to bed every night when everyone else did.  When it got dark, he flew up to roost with everyone else.  He went right to sleep, too.

But then he’d wake up.  Rouster tried and tried to go back to sleep; but the harder he’d try, the more awake he became.

It made Rouster mad that he couldn’t sleep.  The madder he got the more awake he became.

It made Rouster mad to see everyone else sleeping.  There they were without a thought in their heads, while his mind was working a mile a minute.

“They’re dull birds,” he thought.  “I’m superior in every way.  I think clearly.  They can’t even think.

“I can crow.  They only cluck.  I sing beautifully.  They can’t sing at all.

“The only thing they do better than me is sleep.  If I can’t sleep, why should they?”

With such perfect clarity of thought Rouster began to crow.  It was very gratifying, there in the dark, to know that every head had jerked up to a wakeful position.  It was only 2 a.m., but everyone in the henhouse was awake.  It was perfectly dark outside, while inside, the air was filled with Rouster’s beautiful crowing.

Rouster became very enchanted with his crowing.  The more he crowed, the better he got.  The better he got, the more he crowed.  Rouster was impressed.

After that no one in the henhouse did any sleeping after 2 a.m.  Neither did anyone in the man house next door.  The man in the house watched the clock and timed Rouster’s crowing.  He sang out five times per minute!  The man was impressed, too.  The man was rousted by Rouster at 2 every morning.

Rouster the rooster went in the roaster.

Moral:

When one becomes impressed with oneself,
others become negatively so.