The man blew on his hands to warm them and on his soup to cool it — the satyr left

A man walking through a forest on a winter night was offered shelter by a satyr. Grateful, the man sat down to share the satyr's meal. It was bitterly cold, and the man raised his hands to his mouth and blew on them. 'Why do you do that?' asked the satyr. 'To warm my hands,' said the man.

The satyr brought a bowl of hot soup. The man lifted it to his mouth and blew on the surface. 'Why do you do that?' asked the satyr. 'To cool the soup,' said the man. The satyr stood up and pushed the bowl away. 'I cannot share a table with someone who blows hot and cold from the same mouth,' he said. 'You warm and cool with the same breath. A mouth that serves two purposes cannot be trusted.' The man ate alone.

The fable is the source of the English idiom 'to blow hot and cold.' The satyr's logic is literal but the principle travels: if a single instrument can produce opposite effects depending on the situation, the observer has no way to predict which effect will be used next. The man's error was not dishonesty — he genuinely warmed his hands and cooled his soup. The error was failing to see that the same behaviour, observed by an outsider without context, looked like inconsistency.