Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
574. THE MAN, HIS WIFE AND THE BOY OUTSIDE
Perry 350 (Babrius
116)
There was a boy singing sweet serenades in the middle of the night. A
woman heard him and got up from bed to peep out the window at him. When
she saw the boy, who looked very beautiful in the shining moonlight, she
left her husband asleep and went downstairs and out the door. She then
met the boy in the street and satisfied herself completely. All of a sudden
her husband woke up and wanted to find out where his wife had gone. Not
finding her inside the house, he didn't just stand there gaping but instead
followed her outside and said, 'It's alright. Go ahead and persuade the
boy to sleep in our house.' So he took the boy and brought him inside.
He didn't have any trouble after that, and joined in whenever the two
of them wanted to do something.
That's the story, and the message of the fable is that it is a bad
thing to just stand there gaping like a fool when you can manage to enjoy
yourself.
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.
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