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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE WOLF AND THE SLEEPING DOG

A dog was sleeping in front of the barn when a wolf noticed him lying there. The wolf was ready to devour the dog, but the dog begged the wolf to let him go for the time being. 'At the moment I am thin and scrawny,' said the dog, 'but my owners are about to celebrate a wedding, so if you let me go now, I'll get fattened up and you can make a meal of me later on.' The wolf trusted the dog and let him go. When he came back a few days later, he saw the dog sleeping on the roof. The wolf shouted to the dog, reminding him of their agreement, but the dog simply said, 'Wolf, if you ever catch me sleeping in front of the barn again, don't wait for a wedding!'
The same is true of intelligent people: when they escape from some threatening situation, they are on guard in the future.

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.


Perry 134: Gibbs (Oxford) 117 [English]
Perry 134: L'Estrange 120 [English]
Perry 134: Chambry 184 [Greek]


You can find a compilation of Perry's index to the Aesopica in the gigantic appendix to his edition of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1965). This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the Aesopic fable tradition. Invaluable.