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

120. THE MAN AND THE FLEA
Perry 272 (Chambry 357)

A man finally caught a flea that had been bothering him terribly. He shouted at the flea, 'Just who do you think you are, feeding on all the limbs of my body here and there, eating me up as you please?' The flea responded, 'That is how we live! Please don't kill me; I cannot be causing you too much harm.' The man laughed at the flea and said, 'I'm going to kill you here and now with my very own hands: any kind of evil, whether it is big or small, should not be allowed to exist under any circumstances whatsoever!'
The fable shows that no mercy should be shown to someone who is wicked, regardless of whether his wickedness is great or small.


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.