Once a lonely travelling man came upon a sage sitting under a eucalyptus tree and noting him he stopped and addressed the sage thus:
"Prithee, kind sir, may I stop a while and converse with you?"
The sage, unmoving, replied, "I would very much like to talk with you, good sir, but I fear that I cannot, for - alas! - I am a goat with a thousand foreheads."
The man was nonplussed. He looked the sage up and down. "Are you certain?" he asked.
The sage, maintaining his posture, replied, "Indeed. I am absolutely certain. I can feel my hooves and my beard and every one of my thousand foreheads glistening with sweat, for today is a very hot day, is it not?"
"It is, indeed, a very hot day," said the man, "but still, I fail to understand this matter of the goat. To me you appear to be simply a man, old and clean-shaven and more like to the aspect of the eagle than to that of the goat. How can this be?"
"Well," said the sage, "if you cannot see why I am a goat with a thousand foreheads, then there is little use in my explaining."
"But all I wish is to understand," said the man. "I do not do deny that you are this many-faceted goat you speak of; indeed, I respect your wisdom and wish to acknowledge that things are as you describe them. However, the evidence of my eyes deceives me. Can you not spare me a few words to lift this veil from my understanding?"
On hearing this, the sage raised his head and spoke out with a voice that crackled with irritation. "Good god, man!" he said. "Don't you know a brush-off when you hear one?"