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

222. THE FOX AND THE LION IN A CAGE
Perry 409 (Syntipas 17)

A fox saw a lion that had been imprisoned in a cage. The fox approached the lion and insulted him very rudely. The lion then said to her, 'You are not responsible for my disgrace; the cause is my unfortunate situation.'
The fable shows that after suffering a reversal of fortune, powerful people are often humiliated by mere riffraff.

Note: For the lion who is humiliated in his old age, see Fable 422.

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.