Dr. Thomas Hilton tells a story of a man with the odd name of Horville Sash. Horville had a very humble job in a certain company, a job in the lowest basement of a building. He was a mailroom clerk. As mailroom clerk, there was no one who was lower than he was.

One day he came across a bug scurrying across the floor. Horville may have the lowliest job in the whole company, but he was bigger than the bug! So he raised his foot to flatten the hapless bug.

But this story is a fable, and the bug speaks. "Spare me," said the bug, "and I will grant you your fondest wishes." Horville spared the bug. His reward: a wish. "I wish to be promoted to the second floor." And his wish was granted. Zap! He found himself working on the second floor.

But wait. Horville heard footsteps on the ceiling of floor number two. A higher level meant higher wages. The next day, Horville rose to the third floor job of sales coordinator. But that didn't end his ambition. He wished for still more promotions. He went to the tenth floor, then to the twentieth the fiftieth the seventieth. Still he was not satisfied.

Horville was sitting by the indoor pool on floor ninety-six, when he discovered a stairway leading up...to another floor? He scrambled up the stairs, and found himself on the roof. At last, he was the highest, the greatest. Finally content, he headed for the down stairway, when he came across a boy on the edge of the building with his eyes closed.

"What are you doing?" asked Horville.

"Praying," whispered the boy.

"To whom?"

The boy pointed a finger skyward, and replied, "To God."

Panic gripped Horville. Was there a floor above him? He couldn't see it, and he couldn't hear any footsteps shuffling around up there. Just clouds. "Do you mean that there's somebody above me? Someone greater than I?"

"Yes," said the boy.

The bug was promptly summoned. "Make me God. Make me the greatest. Put me in the type of position that only God would hold if He were on earth."

The very next day, Horville began work in the basement as a mailroom clerk. Fable attributed to Doug Patterson, Clergy Journal, March 1986, page 10