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

400. THE DONKEY, THE DOG AND THE LETTER
Perry 264 (Chambry 276)

A donkey and a dog were journeying together when they found a sealed letter on the ground. The donkey took the letter, broke the seals, and opened it. The donkey then began to read the letter aloud, while the dog sat there listening. The letter happened to be about food, that is, about barley and straw and hay. As the donkey was reading, the dog grew impatient and finally he said to the donkey, 'You can skip that part, my dear; perhaps further down you will find some information about meat and bones.' The donkey scanned the rest of the letter but he didn't find what the dog was looking for. The dog then said to the donkey, 'Throw it back on the ground; it has nothing to offer!'
The story shows that different people are interested in different things.

Note: Compare the Greek proverb 'to give straw to a dog, bones to a donkey' (see Erasmus, Adages 3.5.14).

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.