A Boy hunting locusts put out his hand toward a Scorpion. The Scorpion, showing his stinger, made the Boy glad he did not touch him or he would lose all.
Caution is important.
A boy, hunting locusts put out his hand toward a Scorpion, thinking he was another locust. The Scorpion, showing his stinger, said, “If you had touched me, my friend, you would have lost me, and all your locusts too!”
Townsend version
A boy was hunting for locusts. He had caught a goodly number, when he saw a Scorpion, and mistaking him for a locust, reached out his hand to take him. The Scorpion, showing his sting, said: If you had but touched me, my friend, you would have lost me, and all your locusts too!”
L’Estrange version (A Boy and a Snake)
A boy was groping for eles, and layd his hand upon a snake, but the snake, finding it was pure simplicity, and not malice, admonish’d him of his mistake; keep your self well while you are well, says the snake; for if you meddle with me, you’ll repent your bargain.
Moral
‘Tis the intention, morally speaking, that makes the action good or bad; and even brutes themselves will put a difference betwizt harms of ill-will and mischance.
Scorpio et Iuvenis
Iuvenis quidam in locis remotis et desertis capiebat cicadas. Quas inter videns scorpionem, eum quoque cicadam esse credens, extento bracchio cupiebat humo tollere. Scorpio autem, aculeo suo ad pungendum exserto, ita illum est allocutus, “Si me ausus fuisses tangere, effecissem, ut quas cicadas cepisses, dimitteres.”
Perry #199