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

168. THE MURDERER AND THE NILE
Perry 32 (Chambry 45 *)

A man had committed a murder and was being pursued by the victim's relatives. He reached the river Nile and when he found a lion there, he was afraid and climbed up a tree; in the tree, he saw a snake and was practically scared to death, so he threw himself into the river, where a crocodile devoured him.
The story is for people who commit murders: neither earth nor air nor water nor any other place will be able to protect them.

Note: Other versions of this fable (included in Chambry's first edition of the Greek fables) feature a wolf instead of a lion.

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.