A Wolf called to a Goat feeding to come to the meadow where there was better food. The Goat saw through the ruse. Smart Goat!
Be careful when your enemy invites you.
Aesop For Children
A hungry Wolf spied a Goat browsing at the top of a steep cliff where he could not possibly get at her.
“That is a very dangerous place for you,” he called out, pretending to be very anxious about the Goat’s safety. “What if you should fall! Please listen to me and come down! Here you can get all you want of the finest, tenderest grass in the country.”
The Goat looked over the edge of the cliff.
“How very, very anxious you are about me,” she said, “and how generous you are with your grass! But I know you! It’s your own appetite you are thinking of, not mine!”
Moral
An invitation prompted by selfishness is not to be accepted.
Townsend version
A wolf saw a Goat feeding at the summit of a steep precipice, where he had no chance of reaching her. He called to her and earnestly begged her to come lower down, lest she fall by some mishap; and he added that the meadows lay where he was standing, and that the herbage was most tender. She replied, “No, my friend, it is not for the pasture that you invite me, but for yourself, who are in want of food.”
[Note: Other collections use a Lion calling to the Goat.]
JBR Collection (The Goat and the Lion)
The Lion seeing a Goat skipping about in high glee upon a steep craggy rock, called to him to come down upon the green pasture where he stood, and where he would be able to feed in much greater comfort. The Goat, who saw through the design of the Lion, replied, “Many thanks for your advice, dear Lion, but I wonder whether you are thinking most of my comfort, or how you would relish a nice morsel of Goats flesh.”
Samuel Croxall (The Goat and the Lion)
THE Lion seeing a Goat upon a steep craggy rock, where he could not come at him, asked him, What delight he could take to skip from one precipice to another, all day, and venture the breaking of his neck every moment: I wonder, says he, you will not come down, and feed on the plain here, where there is such plenty of good grass, and fine sweet herbs. Why, replies the Goat, 1 cannot but say your opinion is right; but you look so very hungry and designing, that, to tell you the truth, I do not care to venture my person where you are.
THE APPLICATION
Advice, though good in itself, is to be suspected, when it is given by a tricking self-interested man. Perhaps we should take upon ourselves not only a very great but an unnecessary trouble, if we were to suspect every man who goes to advise us; but this, however, is necessary, that when we have reason to question any one, in point of honour and justice, we not only consider well before we suffer ourselves to be persuaded by him, but even resolve to have nothing to do in any affair, where such treacherous, slippery sparks are concerned, if we can avoid it with much inconvenience.
Thomas Bewick (The Goat and The Lion)
The Lion, seeing a Goat upon a steep craggy rock, where he could not come at him, asked him what delight he could take to skip from one precipice to another all day, and venture the breaking of his neck every moment? I wonder, says he, you will not come down and feed on the plain here, when there is such plenty of grass, and fine sweet herbs. Why, replies the Goat, I cannot but say your opinion is right; but you look so very hungry and designing, that, to tell you the truth, I do not care to venture my person where you are.
APPLICATION.
Advice, though good in itself, is to be suspected when it is given by a tricking, self-interested man. Perhaps we should take upon ourselves not only a very great, but an unnecessary trouble, if we were to suspect every man who offers to advise us; but this however is necessary, that when we have reason to question any one in point of honour and justice, we not only consider well before we suffer ourselves to be persuaded by him, but even resolve to have nothing to do in any affair where such treacherous slippery sparks are concerned, if we can avoid it without much inconvenience.
Capra in Rupe Stans et Lupus
Lupus capram in alta rupe stantem conspicatus, “Cur non,” inquit, “relinquis nuda illa et sterilia loca, et huc descendis in herbidos campos qui tibi laetum pabulum offerunt?” Cui respondit capra, “Mihi non est in animo dulcia tutis praeponere.”
Perry #157
