"A Little Fable" is a short story written by Franz Kafka between 1917 and 1923. The anecdote, only one paragraph in length, was not published in Kafka's lifetime Ω and first appeared in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (1931).
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A mouse laments its fate, stating that the world, which was once so large and frightening, has grown smaller and forced it into a narrow chamber where he must run into a trap. A cat retorts that to change its fate the mouse need only turn around, and eats it up.[1]
"Alas", said the mouse, "the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into." "You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up.
A comics adaptation of the story, illustrated by Peter Kuper, is included in Give It Up!.