Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
405. THE DOG AND THE TREASURE
Perry 483 (Phaedrus
1.27)
This is a story that can be applied to greedy people and to people
who badly want to join the upper classes despite their humble origins.
While digging up dead people's bones, a dog uncovered a treasure. This
outraged the spirits of the dead, and the dog was punished for his sacrilege
by being stricken with a desire for wealth. Thus, while the dog stood
there guarding the treasure, he took no thought for food and wasted away
from starvation. A vulture perched above him is rumoured to have said,
'O you dog, you deserve to die, since all of a sudden you began to crave
the wealth of a king even though you were conceived in the gutter and
were raised on a dungheap!'
 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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