THE STORY:
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!
THE TRUTH:
For some reason, almost everybody thinks this story is about enjoying the present moment. I have even heard Monks (albeit not Indian ones😉 ) tell their students that the lesson to be learned is that suffering is unavoidable, and ignoring what you feel is negative (aka the Tiger and the cliff/vine) while focusing on present enjoyment/gratitude (the sweet strawberry) is the meaning of the story.
Guess what? That is