The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld, #28)

by Terry Pratchett

As the Amazing Maurice said, it was just a story about people and rats. And the difficult part of it was deciding who the people were, and who were the rats.

“You lied?” “I just told a story,” said Malicia calmly. “It was a good one, too. It was much more true than the truth would sound.

“This is inhuman!” shrieked Rat Catcher 2. “No, it’s very human,” said Keith. “It’s extremely human. There isn’t a beast in the world that’d do it to another living thing, but your poisons do it to rats every day. Now tell me about the rats in the cages.”