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

460. THE RAVEN AND THE SNAKE
Perry 128 (Chambry 167)

A raven who was looking for food noticed a snake stretched out asleep in the sun. The raven jumped on the snake and grabbed it, but the snake then twisted back around and bit him. As he was dying, the raven said, 'What a fool I was! The windfall I found has turned out to be fatal!'
This fable can be applied to a man who finds a treasure that puts his life in jeopardy.

Note: For a very similar fable but with a different moral interpretation, see Fable 143.


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.