Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE ROOSTER AND THE THIEVES
Thieves broke into a certain house and didn't find anything inside except a
rooster. The thieves grabbed the rooster and made their escape. Later, when
they were ready to kill him, the rooster begged the thieves to let him go, claiming
that he was useful to people because he woke them to go about their tasks in
the dark. The thieves said, 'All the more reason to kill you: when you wake
them up, you prevent us from robbing their houses!'
The story shows it is precisely the things that frustrate wicked people
which are beneficial to honest folk. |
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.
Perry 122: Gibbs (Oxford) 122 [English]
Perry 122: L'Estrange 177 [English]
Perry 122: Townsend 291 [English]
Perry 122: Chambry 158 [Greek]
You can find a compilation of Perry's index to the Aesopica in the gigantic appendix to his
edition of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library
(Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1965). This book is an absolute must for anyone interested
in the Aesopic fable tradition. Invaluable.
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