the smartest things in the empire are the rats that hide in the statues. it is common to put statues about the palace.. wooden things, hollow enough for a rat to nest comfortably, and painted without.
if a rat gets into one of them, it would not easily be gotten out. if you burn the statue, it would be certain that the wood would burn up and destroy it wholly, and if it was dipped in the water to drown the beast the colour would come off and wood warp to ugliness and unrecognisability.
so for that regard, the statue saves any rat smart enough to have burrowed into it. such, sire, are all men in government. they are of no use; they are there by favour; they ruin all. many see the evil, many lament it, but no one sees how to remedy it; they are rats in the statue.