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

125. THE ANT AND THE DUNG BEETLE
Perry 112 (Chambry 241 *)

During the summer, the ant went around the fields collecting grains of wheat and barley so that he could store up some food for the winter. A dung beetle watched the ant and decided that he must be a wretched creature since he worked all the time, never taking a moment's rest, unlike the other animals. The ant didn't pay attention to the dung beetle and simply went about his business. When winter came and the dung was washed away by the rain, the beetle grew hungry. He went to the ant and begged him to share a little bit of his food. The ant replied, 'O beetle, if you had done some work yourself instead of making fun of me while I was working so hard, then you would not need to be asking me for food.'
The fable teaches us that we should not neglect important things that require our attention, and instead we should attend in good time to our future well-being.

Note: For the more famous version of this story about the ant and the cricket, see Fable 126 (following).

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.