# The Farmer and the Viper

_Retold by Talerie (talerie.com) from Aesop’s Fables: a new translation_ · 1 min read · ages 5+

One winter day a farmer finds a frozen viper in the snow and warms it inside his coat. The viper bites him, and the bite is deadly: as the poor farmer lies dying, he says he got just what he deserved for taking pity on such a wicked creature.

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One winter day, a farmer was out in his fields when he came upon a viper lying in the snow. It was frozen stiff, so numb with cold that it could not move at all.

The farmer felt sorry for it. He picked the snake up, opened his coat, and tucked it inside against his chest to warm it.

Little by little, the warmth crept back into the viper. But no sooner had it come to life than it turned on the man who had saved it and bit him.

The bite was deadly. As the poor farmer lay dying, he cried out, “I got just what I deserved for taking pity on such a wicked creature.”

**Moral:** Kindness will not change a cruel nature, so take care whom you help.

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- Read online: https://talerie.com/en/tales/the-farmer-and-the-viper
- Also known as: The Farmer and the Snake
- Also in: [German](https://talerie.com/de/maerchen/der-bauer-und-die-schlange.md)
- Author's country: Greece (https://talerie.com/en/tales/country/greece)
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q851008
- Tale type: Perry 176 (per Wikidata)
- Source: Aesop's Fables: a new translation, tr. V. S. Vernon Jones (1912) (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11339)
- Public-domain basis: Talerie contemporary retelling (CC0 2026), based on: Aesop's Fables: a new translation, tr. V. S. Vernon Jones (1912) — translation: author died 564 BC (+70 passed); translator V. S. Vernon Jones died 1955 (+70 passed)
- License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)