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

188. THE FOX, THE MONKEY AND HIS ANCESTORS
Perry 14 (Syntipas 14)

A fox and a monkey were travelling along the same road. They passed through a cemetery, and the monkey said to the fox, 'All these dead people were the freedmen of my ancestors.' The fox then said to the monkey, 'This is an opportune moment for you to tell such lies: not a single one of the people entombed in this place can rise up and refute what you say!'
This fable can be used to indict charlatans and anyone who deals in lies instead of the truth.


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.