Present evil preferred to change for worse.
The wise and the foolish. · Wise and unwise conduct. · Choices. · Choice between evils. · view the constellation · filed as J215
Motif
Within the index
Filed under Choice between evils.
4 finer motifs beneath it
Don't drive away the flies. Wounded animal (man) refuses to have the flies driven away since they are now sated and their places will be taken by fierce and hungry fliesOxen decide not to kill butchers, since inexpert killers might replace themHeathcock prefers home with hardships to travel in foreign landsMonk goes to wilderness to escape work on material things. Finds that he must work to live and returns to monastery
Filed beside it
Four choices, all of which are evil; man to make one choice onlyChoice: free poverty or enslaved wealthChoice: plainness with safety or grandeur with dangerChoice: loss of beauty or speech. Latter chosenChoice: suffering in youth or old ageChoice of deathsCaptivity preferred to deathEnemies make peace rather than slay each otherChoice: small injustice permitted rather than to cause troubles of stateRescue alone from shipwreck chosen over drowning with goodsChoice between evils: pay tribute or lose both money and lifeChoice: apparent injustice over greater wrongDifficult choice between relativesDeath preferred to other evilsChoice between evils – miscellaneous