The lion took all four shares of the hunt — and dared any partner to object

A lion, a cow, a goat and a sheep agreed to hunt together, sharing equally whatever they caught. They brought down a large stag. When the time came to divide it, the lion spoke first. 'The first quarter is mine by right of my title — I am the Lion, and the first share belongs to the king of beasts. The second quarter is mine by right of my strength — I am the strongest of you, and strength earns its portion.'

'The third quarter,' said the lion, 'is mine because I worked harder than any of you — I drove the stag into the trap and I brought it down with my own claws. And as for the fourth quarter,' he said, looking at the others, 'let any of you who dares to take it stand forward.' The cow, the goat and the sheep looked at the stag and looked at the lion's claws. They said nothing. They took nothing.

The fable, sometimes attributed to Aesop and appearing in Phaedrus, is a parable of power in joint ventures. The lion did not break the agreement — he never said the shares would be equal. He simply controlled the order, the categories and the enforcement. The partners had no contract that specified division rules, no arbiter to appeal to, and no ability to walk away from a stag they had helped kill. The lion's share became all of it.