Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
583. THE BALD MAN AND THE GARDENER
Perry 560 (Ademar
24)
A bald man asked his neighbour, a gardener, to give him some of his pumpkins.
The gardener laughed at him and said, 'Go away, baldy, go away! I'm not
giving any of my pumpkins to riffraff like you. Damn you and your baldness,
in winter and summer -- I hope flies and bugs land all over your bald
head and bite you and drink your blood and poop on your head!' The bald
man got angry and drew his sword. He seized the gardener by the hair,
intending to kill him, but the gardener grabbed one of his pumpkins and
hit the bald man on the head. In the end, the bald man was too strong
for him and he cut off the gardener's head.
For people who do not offer to share their goods when asked, and instead
offer only rude words and rebukes.
Note: This odd little story seems to be based at least in part on the
Latin proverbial expression 'balder than a pumpkin' (Apuleius,
The Golden Ass 5.9).
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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