Once upon a time there was a king who had a son. This young prince at an early age went mad and came to believe that he was a rooster. All day long he would sit under the table, naked, clucking and crowing and pecking at food placed on the floor. If you tried to talk to him, he would say nothing but "I'm a rooster!" The king was somewhat distraught over this, as I'm sure you would also be. He sent out messengers trying to find someone who could cure the prince.
One day a venerable old rabbi came to the palace, claiming that he could cure the prince, on one condition: that the king would not interfere with the treatment for six months. Desperate, the king agreed.
To the king's distress, the venerable old rabbi undressed, sat under the table, and began to cluck, crow, and peck. Before he had had a prince under the table thinking he was a rooster; and now there was an old rabbi clucking and crowing under the table as well. But he had promised that he would not interfere for six months, and, being a man of his word, he did not interfere.
For quite some time the rabbi did nothing but sit naked under the table with the prince, clucking and crowing and pecking at food. But one day, the rabbi called for a pair of pants. Still clucking and crowing, he began to put them on.
"Wait," said the prince suddenly, "you can't wear pants. You're a rooster!"
"Well," the rabbi replied, "I want to know who says a rooster can't wear pants. They're nice and warm, and very comfortable. Why should men have all the good things? Surely it makes as much sense for a rooster to wear pants as it does for a man to wear them?"
The prince thought about this and agreed, so the rabbi called for pants and the prince put them on.
The next day the rabbi called for a clean shirt. When he put it on, the prince again said, "You're a rooster; you can't wear shirts!"
To which the rabbi replied, "If a shirt fits, why can't a rooster wear it? After all, it's a useful thing to wear, and no rooster is any less a rooster for wearing a shirt. Should we shiver on cold nights just because we are roosters?"
This convinced the prince, and he, too, put on a shirt.
Bit by bit the rabbi added items of clothing, then branched out to behaviors like sitting at the table, reading books, and calling himself a man rather than a rooster. By the end of the six months, the prince was completely cured.
