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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

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

THE SHEPHERD, THE WOLF CUB AND THE WOLF

A shepherd found a new-born wolf cub. Taking it home, he raised it with his dogs. After the cub had grown up, he would join the dogs in the chase if a prowling wolf ever stole one of the sheep. When the dogs were no longer able to keep up with the other wolf and turned back for home (as sometimes happened), the wolf would continue the chase until he caught the other wolf and received an equal share of the prey, true to his wolf's nature. Then he too would go back home. If, however, no wolves came to seize the sheep, he would secretly slaughter one of the sheep and eat it together with the dogs. When the shepherd finally guessed what was happening, he hanged the wolf from a tree and killed him.
The fable shows that a wicked nature does not produce a good character.

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 267: Gibbs (Oxford) 36 [English]
Perry 267: L'Estrange 155 [English]
Perry 267: Chambry 314 [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.