Dear of troy: to tease you gently, what color is "midnight blue"? It looks rather black to me.

Dear suededevil: I wonder if the "parable" you are quoting is a translation from Chinese.
I cannot think of a way to say it without it being a bit awkward. The boys who worked
as assistants to printers were called "printer's devils" because they got ink on their faces
from carelessness, as well as on their hands.
The only such "parable" I can remember was told by a speaker at my Highschool
graduation. To warn us that we should not associate with bad people, he said: "If you
lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas."