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

478. THE SICK MAN AND HIS WIFE
Perry 34 (Chambry 46)

A poor man had taken ill and was in very bad shape. When the doctors had given up hope, since he didn't have anything he could pay with, the man called upon the gods and vowed “O you great and radiant divinities, if you restore my health, I will bring a hundred oxen to you as a sacrifice.” His wife then asked him, “Where are you going to get a hundred oxen from, if you get well?” The man said to her, “And do you suppose I am going to ever get out of this bed so that the gods will be able to demand payment?”

The story shows that people are often quick to make promises, but they do not really expect to carry them out.
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.