Quick answer
The sluggard has a lion. Asked why the work is not done, he produces a predator in the streets, absurd enough to excuse everything and check nothing.
Read both lines
The verse simply quotes the man and lets the quote do the demolition: a lion, outside, in town, with the speaker cast as tragic hero of an event that has never once occurred. The sages' comedy has a diagnostic edge: the lazy man's problem is not planning but motivated imagination. The energy that could have plowed the field goes into producing reasons the field cannot be plowed, and the reasons improve with practice; by 26:13 the lion is back with a variant in the road. Everyone owns a private zoo of such lions. The proverb's cure is its laughter: a lion you can be made to laugh at is half-evicted.
Related: Proverbs 26:13–16 · Proverbs 6:9–11
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.