A timid Hunter was looking for Lion spoor. A Woodman offered to show the Hunter the Lion but the Hunter declined saying he was just looking for tracks.
The hero is brave in deeds as well as words.
Townsend version
A hunter, not very bold, was searching for the tracks of a Lion. He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of his footsteps or knew where his lair was. “I will,” said the man, “at once show you the Lion himself.” The Hunter, turning very pale and chattering with his teeth from fear, replied, “No, thank you. I did not ask that; it is his track only I am in search of, not the Lion himself.”
Moral
The hero is brave in deeds as well as words.
Babrius Translation (The Timid Hunter)
A lion-hunter once, who courage lack’d,
In the hill-forests dense his game had track’d.
A woodman near a tall fir met his view,
Whom by the Nymphs he pray’d, if aught he knew,
To point the wild beast’s steps, that harbour’d near.
The other said, “Good luck has brought you here!
“The lion’s self to you I’ll quickly show.”
Pale, and with chattering teeth, he cried, “No, no!”
“Pray don’t oblige me, friend, beyond your task :
“To see the lion’s track, not him, I ask.”
Venator Meticulosus
Leonis indagans vestigia, venator lignatorem rogavit an leonis vestigia et latibula nosset. Respondit ille, “Et ipsum quoque leonem, si lubet, indicabo.” Sed venator, metu pallescens, dentibus crepitans, “Vestigia tantum,” ait, “non leonem quaero.”
Moral
Audaces una et timidos carpit haec fabula, audaces nempe verbis, sed non factis.
Perry #326