A hungry wolf finds a lamb alone at a stream and looks for something to hold against it. Three times the wolf names a grievance, and three times the lamb answers with the plain truth, yet he takes it for his dinner all the same, and that evening the flock comes home without the little lamb.
A Wolf came down to the stream one morning and found a Lamb standing there on its own, a little way from the flock. He was hungry, and the Lamb was small and had nobody to help it. Still, the Wolf did not care to eat a creature so helpless without a reason, so he cast about for something to hold against it.
“Last year,” he said at last, “you insulted me. You said rude things about me where everyone could hear.”
“That cannot be, sir,” said the Lamb. “Last year I had not been born.”
“Then it is my pasture,” said the Wolf. “You feed on my grass.”
“That cannot be either, sir,” said the Lamb. “I have never yet tasted grass.”
“Then it is my spring,” said the Wolf. “You drink my water.”
“Indeed I do not, sir,” said the Lamb. “I have never drunk anything but my mother’s milk.”
The Wolf had run out of grievances. “Well,” he said, “I am not going without my dinner.”
And he did not. When the flock went home that evening, the little Lamb was not with them.
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)
