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

432. THE MAIDS AND THE ROOSTER
Perry 55 (Chambry 89 *)

A hard-working widow woman had some maid servants whom she would rouse up for work at the sound of the cockcrow when it was still dark outside. The maids were burdened with endless tasks, so they decided it would be a good idea to kill the household rooster since it was the rooster who made their mistress get them up while it was still dark. Yet after they had killed the rooster, their desperate situation grew even worse: now that the mistress was no longer able to tell the hour by the rooster, she woke the maids up even earlier than before.
The fable shows that people often make plans that turn out to be to their own disadvantage.

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.