"The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" is a 2005 fable about ageing and death by the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. It relates the misery inflicted by a dragon-tyrant (a personification of the ageing process and death), who demands a tribute of tens of thousands of people's lives per day, and the actions of the people, including the king, who come together to fight back, eventually killing the dragon-tyrant.

The fable recounts the tale of a kingdom that lives next to a mountain inhabited by a terrible dragon. The dragon demands a daily sacrifice of thousands of people from the kingdom. Over the years, there are many valiant efforts to defeat the dragon, but none are successful; the dragon's scales are too strong to be pierced. People in the kingdom become accustomed to the dragon's daily appetite as a simple fact of life. A large bureaucracy in the kingdom is dedicated to efficiently meeting the dragon's demands, shipping people to the foot of the mountain by railway every night. This bureaucracy eventually becomes extraordinarily expensive, consuming one-seventh of the kingdom's budget.