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

546. THE FISHERMAN AND THE RIVER
Perry 26 (Chambry 27 *)

A fisherman was fishing in a river. He stretched out his nets and covered the river's stream from one side to the other. He then tied a stone to a piece of rope and struck the water with it so that the fish would flee and fall unwittingly into the net. Someone who lived in that neighbourhood saw what the man was doing and began to complain, because by agitating the water in this way he deprived them of clear water to drink. The fisherman answered, 'But if I do not disturb the river, I will have no choice but to die of hunger!'
The story shows that the same is true in cities too: demagogues are most effective when they stir up sedition in their homelands.


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.