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

390. THE WOLF AND THE RAVEN
Perry 190 (Chambry 274)

A donkey who had a sore on his back was grazing in a meadow. A raven alighted on his back and began to peck at the wound, while the donkey brayed and reared up on his hind legs in pain. The donkey's driver, meanwhile, stood off at a distance and laughed. A wolf who was passing by saw the whole thing and said to himself, 'How unfairly we wolves are treated! When people so much as catch a glimpse of us, they drive us away, but when someone like that raven makes his move, everyone just smiles at him.'
The fable shows that even before they act, dangerous people can be recognized at a distance.

Note: L'Estrange provides a delightful epimythium: 'One Man may better Steal a Horse, than Another Look over the Hedge.'


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.