A Goat went to pasture and told her Kid to not open the door without seeing a beard. Wolf asked to come in but Kid could not see a beard and was safe.
A hypocrite can usually be found out.
Aesop For Children
Mother Goat was going to market one morning to get provisions for her household, which consisted of but one little Kid and herself.
“Take good care of the house, my son,” she said to the Kid, as she carefully latched the door. “Do not let anyone in, unless he gives you this password: ‘Down with the Wolf and all his race!'”
Strangely enough, a Wolf was lurking near and heard what the Goat had said. So, as soon as Mother Goat was out of sight, up he trotted to the door and knocked.
“Down with the Wolf and all his race,” said the Wolf softly.
It was the right password, but when the Kid peeped through a crack in the door and saw the shadowy figure outside, he did not feel at all easy.
“Show me a white paw,” he said, “or I won’t let you in.”
A white paw, of course, is a feature few Wolves can show, and so Master Wolf had to go away as hungry as he had come.
“You can never be too sure,” said the Kid, when he saw the Wolf making off to the woods.
Moral
Two sureties are better than one.
Samuel Croxall
THE Goat, going abroad to feed, shut up her young Kid at borne, charging him to bolt the door fast, and open it to nobody, till she herself should return. The Wolf, who lay lurking just by, heard this charge given; and soon after came and knocked at the door, counterfeiting the voice of the Goat, and desiring to be admitted. The Kid, looking out at a window, and finding the cheat, bid him go about his business; for, however he might imitate a Goat’s voice, yet he appeared too much like a Wolf to be trusted.
THE APPLICATION
As it is impossible that young people should steer their course aright in the world, before they are acquainted with the situation of the many dangers which lie in their way; it is therefore necessary, that they should be under the government and direction of those who are appointed to take the charge of their education, whether they are parents, or tutors by them intrusted with the instruction of their children. If a child has but reason enough to consider at all, how readily should it embrace the counsel of his father! how attentively listen to his precepts! and how steadily pursue his advice! The father has already walked in the difficult wilderness of life, and has observed every danger which lies lurking in the paths of it, to annoy the footsteps of those who never trod the way before. Of these, with much tenderness and sincere affection, he makes a discovery to his son; telling him what he must avoid, and directing him how to make a safe, honourable, and advantageous journey. When therefore the child refuses to follow the directions of so skilful a guide, so faithful, so loving, and so sincere a friend, no wonder if he falls into many mischiefs, which, otherwise, lie might have escaped, unpitied and unlamented by all that know him, because he obstinately condemned the kind admonitions of him that truly wished and intended his happiness, and perversely followed the examples of those who decoyed him out of the way of virtue, into the thorny mazes of vice and error. Nor should children take it ill, if the commands of their parents sometimes seem difficult and disagreeable; perhaps upon experiment, they may prove as pleasant and diverting, as if they had followed their own choice; this, however, they may be assured of, that all such cautions are intended out of true love and affection, by those who are more experienced than themselves, and therefore better judges what their conduct should be.
Thomas Bewick (The Goat, The Kid, and The Wolf)
The Goat going abroad to feed, shut up her young Kid at home, charging him to bolt the door fast, and open it to nobody till she herself should return. The Wolf who lay lurking hard by, heard the charge given, and soon after came and knocked at the door, counterfeiting the voice of the Goat, and desired to be admitted. The Kid looking out at the window, and finding the cheat, bade him go about his business, for, however he might imitate a Goat’s voice, yet he appeared too much like a Wolf to be trusted.
APPLICATION
Deceit, hypocrisy, and villainy, are constantly on the watch to entrap and ensnare the innocent and the unwary. Every beautiful woman is commonly surrounded by a kind of men who would undermine her virtue; and inexperienced men of fortune, in the outset of life, are almost constantly beset with rogues and sharpers; and these artful villains, under one specious pretext or another, too often effect the ruin of the weak and unsuspicious of both sexes. As a guard against all these, the early admonitions of parents are of inestimable worth: they are built upon the tenderest regard, and the most sincere affection. Those who have already travelled over the difficult paths of life, and buffeted its storms, have observed the snares and the dangers with which the way is strewed, and they are enabled by their experience, to forewarn those who are about to launch out on the troubled ocean of life, to steer their course clear of its hidden rocks, its shoals, and its quick-sands. Did youth but know the importance of this early advice, how eagerly would they treasure it in their minds, and as occasion required, with what pleasure would they draw it forth, and obey its dictates. To the neglect of these precepts, may be attributed much of the ill conduct we see in the world, and most of the misfortunes which befal mankind through life.
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Exodus 20:12
JBR Collection
A She-Goat, leaving her house one morning to look for food, told her Kid to bolt the door, and to open to no one who did not give as a pass-word, “A plague on the Wolf, and all his tribe.” A Wolf who was hanging about, unseen by the Goat, heard her words, and when she was gone, came and tapped at the door, and imitating her voice, said, “A plague on the Wolf, and all his tribe.” He made sure that the door would be opened at once; but the Kid, whose suspicions were aroused, bade him show his beard, and he should be admitted directly.
L’Estrange version
A goat that was going out one morning for a mouthful of fresh grass, charg’d her kid upon her blessing, not to open the door till she came back, to any creature that had not a beard. The goat was no sooner out of sight, but up comes a wolf to the door, that had over-heard the charge; and in a small pipe calls to the kid to let her mother come in. The kid smelt out the roguery, and bad the wolf shew his beard, and the door should be open to him.
Moral
There never was any hypocrite so disguis’d, but he had some mark or other yet to be known by.
Heinrich Steinhöwel (Of the Wolf and the Kid)
Haedus et Lupus Fores Pulsans
Capra, cum itura esset pastum, haedum domi concludit, monens nemini aperire dum ipsa redeat. Lupus, qui procul id audiverat, post matris discessum, fores pulsat, voce caprissat, iubens recludi. Haedus, dolum praesentiens, inquit, “Non aperio, nam etsi vox caprissat, tamen equidem lupum per rimas video.”
Perry #572