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.
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