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

83. THE TWO MEN, THE EAGLE AND THE FOX
Perry 275 (Chambry 6 *)

An eagle was once caught by a man who immediately clipped his wings and turned him loose in the house with the chickens. The eagle was utterly dejected and grief-stricken. Another man bought the eagle and restored the eagle's feathers. The eagle then soared on his outspread wings and seized a hare, which he promptly brought back as a gift for the man who had rescued him. A fox saw what the eagle was doing and shouted, 'He's not the one who needs your attention! You should give the hare to the first man, so that if he ever catches you again, he won't deprive you of your wing feathers like the first time.'
The fable shows that we should give appropriate thanks to our benefactors, while avoiding evil-doers.

Note: The moral added to this fable flatly contradicts the moral inside the fable pronounced by the fox. The fox is pragmatic: give the reward to the wicked man in order to win his favour. The editor of the fable prefers a more pious rule of behaviour: good deeds, not wickedness, should be rewarded.

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.