<< Home Page | Oxford (Gibbs) Index

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

227. THE SAILORS AND THE STONES
Perry 391 (pseudo-Dositheus, Hermeneumata)

While making a trip by sea, a certain well-to-do gentleman grew frustrated with the bad weather. As the sailors were rowing less strenuously on account of the weather, the man said to them, 'Hey you, if you don't make this ship go any faster, I will pelt you with stones!' One of the sailors then said to the man, 'I just wish we were somewhere where you could find stones to throw!'
That is how life is: we must put up with less serious losses in order to avoid worse ones.

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.