Persons who have the care of elephants have often noticed that they know very well when any one is making fun of them, and that they very often revenge themselves when they have an opportunity. A painter wished to draw an elephant in the menagerie at Paris, and wanted to get the animal in a ridiculous attitude, which was with his trunk lifted up and his mouth open.

To make the elephant keep this position, an attendant threw fruit and nuts into the open mouth, but sometimes he only pretended to throw them. This made the animal very angry, and as if knowing that the painter rather than his servant was the one to blame, he finally turned to him and dashed a quantity of water from his trunk over the paper on which the painter was sketching his portrait.