Learning my Lesson with Fables

I had a little book of Aesop's fables when I was a kid, but of course being a kid, the book was very basic and had a small number of the actual fables. They were the popular ones like: the Fox and the Grapes, the Ant and the Grasshopper, the Boy who cried Wolf, etc.

Recently, my fascination for the fables crept up again and I was able to read all 584 of them. (They are really short so don't think I'm a fancy scholar or anything!)

I wanted to share a couple that were not only a great story but provided a great lesson as well:

The Lion and the Farmer's Daughter
A story about a lion and a young woman, which teaches us not to indulge our desires.
A lion who had fallen in love with a young woman went to the woman's father to ask for her hand in marriage. The father was afraid to refuse the lion's offer, but asked him first to have his teeth and claws taken out; otherwise the lion could only arouse his daughter's terror. The lion was so in love with the woman that he agreed to the bargain. When the lion came back and approached the farmer, now naked and defenceless, the farmer clubbed him to death.
If you follow your enemies' advice, you will run into danger.

The Man and the Golden Eggs
A man had a hen that laid a golden egg for him each and every day. The man was not satisfied with this daily profit, and instead he foolishly grasped for more. Expecting to find a treasure inside, the man slaughtered the hen. When he found that the hen did not have a treasure inside her after all, he remarked to himself, "While chasing after hopes of a treasure, I lost the profit I held in my hands!"
The fable shows that people often grasp for more than they need and thus lose the little they have.

The Lion, the Rooster and the Donkey
A donkey and a rooster lived together on a farm. A lion who had noticed the donkey crept up and was about to pounce when the rooster let loose a squawk. This frightened the lion (for they say that lions are terrified of the rooster's crowing) and he turned tail and ran. The donkey was elated at the thought of the lion running away from the rooster. He took off in pursuit of the lion but when the donkey had gone some distance away from the farm, the lion turned around and ate him.
The same thing happens to people: when someone sees his enemies humbled, he becomes presumptous, and this makes it possible for his enemies to destroy him before he even realizes what is happening.

Stories courtesy of Perry's index