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

337. THE MONKEY AND THE FISHING NET
Perry 203 (Syntipas 46)

A fisherman was catching fish by the sea. A monkey saw him, and wanted to imitate what he was doing. The man went away into a little cave to take a rest, leaving his net on the beach. The monkey came and grabbed the net, thinking that he too would go fishing. But since he didn't know anything about it and had not had any training, the monkey got tangled up in the net, fell into the sea, and was drowned. The fisherman seized the monkey when he was already done for and said, 'You wretched creature! Your lack of judgment and stupid behaviour has cost you your life!'
This fable shows that people who try to imitate their superiors end up only destroying themselves.

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.