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

491. THE FOX AND THE MAN COUNTING THE WAVES
Perry 429 (Lucian, Hermotimus 84)

Aesop tells this story. A certain man was sitting on the beach counting the waves as they broke against the shore. When he lost count of the waves he got angry and frustrated. A sly fox then approached the man and said, 'Good sir, what is the point of getting angry about the waves that have already gone by? You need to just put them out of your mind and pick up counting again where you left off!'


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.