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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

322. THE FOX, THE DONKEY AND THE LION SKIN
Perry 188 (Chambry 267)

A donkey put on the skin of a lion and went around frightening all the animals. The donkey saw a fox and tried to frighten her too, but she had heard his voice first, so she said to the donkey, 'You can be sure that I too would have been afraid, if I had not already heard the sound of your bray.'
Likewise, there are certain ignorant people whose outward affectations give them an air of importance, but their true identity comes out as soon as they open their big mouths.

Note: There are striking parallels between the motif of the 'donkey in the lion's skin' and the Buddhist Sihacama - jataka (compare also the donkey in the leopard's skin in the opening story of Book 3 of the Panchatantra).

Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.