Aesop Fables

An Aesop Fable is a story with a moral.  Aesop's Fables got their name from a boy called Aesop.  He told a king his stories and the king really enjoyed them, so he called the stories Aesop's Fables.  Now the stories are famous around the world.  You may have heard of some of these, the Crow and the pitcher, the Lion and the Mouse, the Dog and the bone, the Boy who cried Wolf and the Ant and the Dove.  (The red coloured stories are outlined below.)

   

Crow gif

 

The Crow and the pitcher

 

A Crow, half-dead with the thirst, came upon a pitcher, which had once been full of water.  When the Crow put his beak into the pitcher,  he found that there was only a little water left in it.  Try as he would, he could not reach far enough down to get a drink.  Then a thought came to him.  He took a pebble and dropped it into the pitcher.  Then he took another pebble and another and dropped them into the pitcher.  Before long, he could see the water rising higher and higher.  After dropping in a few more pebbles he was able to get a drink.  The moral is that 'little by little' does the trick.

 


The Dog and the boneDog with a bone

One day a dog found a fine bone and was carrying it home to chew on in peace.  On his way he had to walk over a plank on the stream.  As he walked across the plank, he looked down and saw his reflection in the water.  Thinking it was another dog with another bone, he made up his mind that he wanted that bone for himself.  But when he went to snap at his reflection, his own bone fell into the water and was lost forever.  The moral is that those who are greedy end up losing what they have. 

  The Ant and dove the Dove  

An Ant was speeding along the bank of a river.  He said aloud to himself that he was very thirsty.  A Dove flying over the Ant heard what he said and told the Ant to drink the water from the bank of the river. That’s exactly what he did.  The ant was about to stop drinking when he fell in.  He roared for help and the dove heard him, since he was sitting on a branch.  The dove threw down a small leaf for the ant to climb on. When the ant got to the bank, he thanked the dove and said to him if you were ever in trouble I will try to help.  The next day the Ant saw a poacher and knew he was going to shoot the Bird.  He ran as fast as he could over to the poacher.  When he got there, he bit the poacher on the ankle and the poacher accidentally shot the gun and the dove heard it and knew that there was a poacher near. Afterwards the dove said thanks.  The moral is that if you help somebody, then that person will help you in times of trouble.

by John McAuliffe