A cat has made the barn a dangerous place for its mice, so they hold a council after dark, and one of them proposes hanging a small bell around her neck. The others cheer until an old mouse agrees with every word of the plan and asks his friends which of them is going to put the bell on the cat.
A cat had made life very hard for the mice of a certain barn, so they called a council. They met after dark, every one of them, to decide how they might keep themselves safe.
One after another they spoke. One said they should move up into the hayloft; another that they should come out only after midnight; a third that a watch be set at every hole. Each idea was turned over, and each set aside. The cat went where she pleased, and she went without a sound.
Then a mouse the others respected got to his feet and waited until the room was quiet.
“Friends, I have it,” he said. “We cannot run faster than the cat, and we do not need to. We need only know when she is coming. Let us hang a small bell around her neck. Wherever she goes it will ring, and we shall hear her from the far end of the barn and be gone before she reaches us.”
The mice cheered. It was so simple that they wondered why nobody had thought of it sooner, and they called it the finest plan ever made in that barn. The matter was as good as settled.
Then an old mouse got slowly to his feet at the back, and the cheering died away.
“It is an excellent plan,” he said. “I agree with every word of it. But tell me, friends, which of us is going to hang the bell on the cat?”
Retold by Talerie, Source: Aesop's Fables: a new translation (opens in a new window)
License: Public domainCopy this text, adapt it, use it however you like. A link back to Talerie is appreciated but never required.CC0 1.0 (opens in a new window)