They decided to take away this bad habit of his benevolently, reducing day by day its ration by several stalks until it was habituated to complete abstinence.
For a time, everything went greatly. The horse was accustomed to not eating, except a single daily stalk, and at last the next day it would work without the need of any.
That morning they found the treacherous animal dead; the inhabitants of Schilda could not explain the reason behind its death.