Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
88. THE DOG-CATCHER AND THE DOG
Perry 403 (Syntipas
21)
A man saw a dog walking by and threw him some bits of food. The dog then
said to the man, 'O man, keep away from me! All your well-wishing warns
me to be even more on my guard.'
This fable shows that people who offer to give someone many gifts are
no doubt trying to deceive him.
Note: The man in this fable is called a 'hunter' (or perhaps a 'thief,'
as one editor has conjectured); he appears to be a kind of 'dog thief'
or 'dog catcher.' In another version of the story (Phaedrus
1.23), the man is a thief throwing food to a watchdog.
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.
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