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

299. THE CHICKENS AND THE CAT
Perry 79 (Babrius 17)

A cat laid a trap for the chickens by hanging himself from a peg as if he were a sack. When the quick-witted rooster with his hooked spurs noticed the cat, he made this sharp remark: 'I've seen many sacks in my life, so I know what they look like -- and not one of them ever had the teeth of a living cat!'

Note: The Greek prose version (Chambry 13) is about mice, not chickens.


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.