Finally, he remarked, "I am told that the Prince has a sacred tortoise, over two thousand years old, which is kept in a box, wrapped in silk and brocade."
"That is true," the officials replied.
"If the tortoise had been given a choice," Chuang-tse continued, "which do you think he would have liked better - to have been alive in the mud, or dead within the palace?"
"To have been alive in the mud, of course," the men answered.
"I too perfer the mud," said Chuang-tse. "I will not accept the position."