Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
403. THE ROOSTER AND THE PEARL
Perry 503 (Phaedrus
3.12)
A young rooster was looking for food in the manure when he found a pearl.
'What a fine thing you are,' he exclaimed, 'and in what an unfortunate
situation! If a person longing to possess something of such value had
found you, you would have been restored to your original splendour. Yet
it is I who have found you, when I would have much preferred to find some
food instead. So this isn't going to do you any good, and it doesn't do
me any good either!'
This is a story I tell for people who do not know how to appreciate
me.
Note: Erasmus (Adages 4.8.38) notes the similarity between this fable
and a saying attributed to Heraclitus by Aristotle: 'as Heraclitus says,
a donkey would prefer chaff to gold since donkeys get more pleasure
from food than from gold' (Nicomachean
Ethics 1176a).
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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