A man wanted to purchase an Ass and took him home for a trial. The Ass befriended the most idle of those the man already owned. Bye, bye Ass.
A man is known by the company he keeps.
Townsend version
A man wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he should try out the animal before he bought him. He took the Ass home and put him in the straw-yard with his other Asses, upon which the new animal left all the others and at once joined the one that was most idle and the greatest eater of them all. Seeing this, the man put a halter on him and led him back to his owner. On being asked how, in so short a time, he could have made a trial of him, he answered, “I do not need a trial; I know that he will be just the same as the one he chose for his companion.”
Moral
A man is known by the company he keeps.
Emptor Asini
Asinum quidam empturus emit hoc pacto ut eius experimentum ac periculum faceret. Eum itaque ad praesepe ductum inter alios suos asellos collocavit. Ille vero, ceteris relictis, iuxta asinum quemdam otiosissimum et voracissimum, quique nihil umquam agebat, sese proiecit. Id herus videns, eum statim fune ligatum proprium ad dominum reduxit. Cui quaerenti an tam cito eius experimentum fecisset, “Ego mehercle,” respondens ait, “probatione opus non habeo. Scio enim eum talem esse, qualis is est quem sibi socium delegit.”
Perry #237