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

9. THE BUTCHER, THE SHEPHERD AND THE LAMB
Perry 465 (Maximus of Tyre, Orations 19)

A shepherd and a butcher were walking along the road together. They saw a plump little lamb who had wandered away from the flock and had been left behind by his fellow sheep. The shepherd and the butcher both rushed to grab the lamb. This was back in the days when animals spoke the same language as people, so the lamb asked the two men why they wanted to grab him and carry him off. After the lamb found out what they both did, he turned and offered himself to the shepherd. 'You are nothing but an executioner of sheep,' he said to the butcher, 'and your hands are stained with the blood of the flock! This man, on the other hand, rejoices if we thrive and prosper.'

Note: Maximus of Tyre was a Greek philosopher and sophist of the second century C.E.


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.