Moth

The Chinese sage Chuang-tzu, one of the disciples of Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism-used to flutter about as a butterfly at night. On waking, he would continue to feel the motion of wings in his shoulders, and he was unsure whether he was truly a butterfly or a man. Lao-tzu explained to him: Formerly you were a white butterfly which . . . should have been immortalized, but one day you stole some peaches and flowers. . . . The guardian of the garden slew you, and that is how you came to be reincarnated