Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
304. THE WEASEL AND THE FILE
Perry 59 (Syntipas
5)
A weasel went into a blacksmith's shop and there she came across an iron
file. She began to lick the file with delight, scraping her tongue in
a mad effort to overpower the instrument of iron. The weasel's tongue
started to bleed, making her even happier; the taste of blood made her
think she was actually devouring the file. So the weasel kept on licking
until her tongue was completely gone.
This story shows that people who think there is a profit in some useless
activity will get so carried away by what they are doing that they destroy
themselves.
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.
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