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

426. THE SPARROW AND THE MYRTLE BERRIES
Perry 86 (Syntipas 58)

A sparrow was feeding on some myrtle berries. The berries were so sweet that the sparrow stayed right there in the tree and refused to leave. Meanwhile, a bird catcher who had been watching the sparrow caught her and killed her. As the sparrow was about to take her last breath, she exclaimed, 'What a miserable creature I am! I am going to die merely for the sake of some food and its momentary sweetness.'
This fable shows that some people, out of their desire for good food and luxury, put their lives at risk in the same way as wicked people do.


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.