<< Home Page | Oxford (Gibbs) Index

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

122. THE ROOSTER AND THE THIEVES
Perry 122 (Chambry 158 *)

Thieves broke into a certain house and didn't find anything inside except a rooster. The thieves grabbed the rooster and made their escape. Later, when they were ready to kill him, the rooster begged the thieves to let him go, claiming that he was useful to people because he woke them to go about their tasks in the dark. The thieves said, 'All the more reason to kill you: when you wake them up, you prevent us from robbing their houses!'
The story shows it is precisely the things that frustrate wicked people which are beneficial to honest folk.

Note: L'Estrange's epimythium cites the English proverb: 'One Body's Meat, is Another Body's Poison.'


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.