A sick Lion was attended by Wolf and Fox. Wolf said the Fox had been gone plotting. Fox returned saying he found a cure: the pelt of a Wolf. Bye Wolf.
Plot against others and fall into a trap of your own making.
JBR Collection
The King of the Forest was once long and seriously ill, and his majesty’s temper not being at all improved by the trial, the Fox, with his usual discretion, kept away from Court as much as he could. He slunk about, however, as near as he was able without being seen, and one day overheard the Wolf talking to the Lion about him. The Wolf and the Fox were never good friends, and the Wolf was now calling the Lion’s attention to the fact that the Fox had not shown his face for a long time at Court, and added that he had strong reasons for suspecting that he was busily engaged in hatching some treason or other. The Lion thereupon commanded that the Fox should be brought at once to his presence, and the Jackal was accordingly sent to look for him. The Fox, being asked what he had to say for himself, replied that his absence, so far from arising from any want of respect for his sovereign, was the result of his extreme concern for his welfare. He had gone far and wide, he said, and consulted the most skilful physicians as to what was the best thing to be done to cure the King’s most grievous malady. “They say,” stated he (and here he gave a malicious leer at the Wolf), “that the only thing to save your majesty’s life is to wrap yourself in the warm skin torn from a newly-killed Wolf.” The Lion, eager to try the experiment, at once dragged the Wolf towards him, and killed him on the spot.
Gherardo Image from 1480
Leo Senex, Vulpes, et Lupus
Leo, cum consenuisset, aegrotabat, iacens in antro. Accesserunt autem visitatura regem, praeter vulpem, cetera animalia. Lupus igitur, capta occasione, accusabat apud leonem vulpem quasi nihili facientem suum omnium dominum et propterea neque ad visitationem profectam. Interim affuit et vulpes et ultima audivit lupi verba. Leo igitur contra eam infremuit sed, defensionis tempore petito, vulpes “Quis,” inquit, “eorum qui convenerunt tantum profuit quantum ego, quae in omnem partem circuivi et medicamentum pro te a medico quaesivi et didici?” Cum autem leo statim ut medicamentum diceret imperasset, illa inquit, “Lupo vivente excoriato, ipsius calidam pellem indueris.” Lupo statim mortuo iacente, vulpes ridens ait, “Sic non oportet dominum ad malevolentiam movere, sed ad benevolentiam.”
Perry #258
