This theft will not be tolerated

[keannu]

Does this "will not be" denote present willingness or future one? Sounds like a present one, but I'm not sure.

p17)Once there was a poor man who had only potatoes to eat. Each dinner he would sit beneath his wealthy neighbor's kitchen window and breathe in mouth-watering aromas coming from the window. This seemed to lend favor to his own plain meal. The wealthy man eventually discovered the poor man's habit. "This theft will not be tolerated!" he thundered. He dragged the poor man to a village elder for advice, and insisted that his neighbor pay for the privilege of enjoying the smells. The poor man said, "I cannot pay because all I own is my dog." "An equal exchange is a solution," said the village elder. "From now on, you shall be free to smell his dog whenever you wish."

 

[dejavecue]

I would say that this has become idiomatic. It means both present and future unwillingness to tolerate this and while it could as well be told in the present tense (used for general statements) it has somehow become established to use the future (also to stress the point - there also exists "We are not going to tolerate this!", but I think the use of "will" makes the message clearer and stronger).

By the way, a very nice little story with a clear message. Is that yours?

 

[5jj]

'Will' is sometimes used to express a rule or command. It is when used by someone with enough authority, an extension of 'will' expressing certainty.

@ dejavecue. There is no apostrophe in yours.

 

[BobK]

Incidentally, there is a typo in the story: the smells didn't lend favor (whatever that might mean), they lent savor. As 'savor' is a little-used word (especially as a noun), maybe a spellchecker 'corrected' it.

b

 

[charliedeut]

Maybe the OP meant to have written "flavor"?

 

[BobK]

Possibly, though the collocation lend/flavor isn't strong; the usual collocation with 'flavor' is 'add': here are the first five hits in BNC vor any verb + 'flavour':

1 ADD FLAVOUR 6
2 MELLOW FLAVOUR 4
3 BECOMING FLAVOUR 2
4 ENHANCES FLAVOUR 2
5 IS FLAVOUR 2
...

And here are the last two:

...
37 ADDS FLAVOUR 1
38 ADDED FLAVOUR 1

(A total of 8 hits [out of 51 in all] makes this a pretty strong collocation.)

On the other hand, there were no hits in BNC for either 'lend flavour' or 'lend savour'; I think the latter sounds appropriately literary for this sort of fable. ;-)

b