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

581. THE BALD MEN AND THE COMB
Perry 528 (Phaedrus 5.6)

A bald man happened to find a comb lying in the street. Another man who also had no hair on his head accosted him and said, 'Hey, you must share whatever you've found!' The first man showed him the loot and said, 'The will of the gods is on our side, but fate must have a grudge against us: as the saying goes, we've found lumps of coal, not gold!'
This complaint suits a man whose high hopes have played him false.


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.