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

333. THE CRAB ON DRY LAND
Perry 116 (Chambry 150 *)

A crab came up from out of the sea and was looking for food on the land. A hungry fox saw the crab, ran up, and grabbed him. As he was about to be eaten, the crab exclaimed, 'It serves me right! I am a creature of the sea but I wanted to live on dry land.'
The fable shows that people are bound to fail when they abandon their familiar pursuits and take up a business they know nothing about.


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.