<< Home Page | Oxford (Gibbs) Index

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

318. THE MERCHANT AND THE RAVENS
Perry 236 (Chambry 255)

Some merchants were making a journey when they happened to meet a raven who was blind in one eye. The travellers halted and one of them said that the sign given to them by the raven meant that they should turn back home. Another member of the company protested, 'But how can such a bird predict what is going to happen to us, when he couldn't even predict the loss of his own eye in time to take preventive measures?'
The same is true of people: someone who cannot manage his own affairs is not qualified to give advice to his neighbours.

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.