Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
146. THE WOLF, THE FOX AND THE SHEPHERD
Perry 568 (Ademar
40)
A wolf had assembled an immense store of booty in his den so that he
could feast on all sorts of delicacies for months into the future. When
the fox found out about this she paid a visit to the wolf and spoke to
him in anxious tones, 'Why should I be deprived of your company these
many days? I've been in tears since you have not come outside.' The wolf
replied spitefully, 'You didn't come here out of any concern for me; you're
just hoping to get something. I know you must have had some reason for
coming here: you are trying to trick me!' This made the fox extremely
angry, so she went to the shepherd and said to him, 'Would you like it
if I turned the enemy of your flock over to you today so that you wouldn't
have to worry about him anymore? The shepherd replied, 'I will be at your
service and will give you whatever you want.' The fox immediately led
the shepherd to where the wolf was hiding and the shepherd killed the
wolf with his lance. He then let the spiteful fox eat her fill of someone
else's larder. Eventually the fox fell foul of hunters and was caught
by their hounds. As she was being torn to pieces, the fox exclaimed, 'Just
as I committed a serious crime, now I am going to die, since I brought
about someone else's death.'
If you injure other people, you need to watch out, or somebody else
will injure you too.
Note: L'Estrange's epimythium abounds
with proverbs: ''Tis with Sharpers as 'tis with Pikes, they prey upon
their own kind; and 'tis a pleasant Scene enough, when Thieves fall
out among themselves, to see the cutting of one Diamond with another.
'
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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