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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.