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

575. THE MOTHER AND HER FOOLISH DAUGHTER
Perry 386 (Life of Aesop 131)

A woman had a daughter who was a fool. She implored all the gods to put some sense into her, and the girl often heard her mother praying in this way. Then one day they went to their country farm. The girl left her mother and wandered into the fields. When she saw a man forcing himself on a donkey, she asked, 'What are you doing?' The man said, 'I'm putting some sense into her.' The foolish girl remembered her mother's prayers and said, 'Put some sense into me too!' The man refused to screw her because, as he said, 'There is nothing more ungrateful than a woman.' The girl said, 'Don't worry on that account, sir! My mother will be very grateful to you and will pay you whatever you want, since she is always praying for me to get some sense.' So the man deflowered her. The girl was overjoyed and ran to tell her mother the good news. 'Mother, mother,' she said, 'I've got some sense now!' The mother exclaimed, 'The gods have answered my prayers!' The daughter replied, 'Indeed they have, mother!' The mother then asked, 'And how did you get some sense, my child?' The foolish girl explained, 'It was a long, red, sinewy thing running in and out that put some sense into me.' When the mother heard her daughter's explanation, she said, 'My child, you have lost what sense you had to being with!'


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.