To the dismay of a Plane-Tree some men sitting under its shade talked badly about it. They got corrected.
Some men underrate their best blessings.
Aesop For Children (The Plane Tree)
Two Travellers, walking in the noonday sun, sought the shade of a widespreading tree to rest. As they lay looking up among the pleasant leaves, they saw that it was a Plane Tree.
“How useless is the Plane!” said one of them. “It bears no fruit whatever, and only serves to litter the ground with leaves.”
“Ungrateful creatures!” said a voice from the Plane Tree. “You lie here in my cooling shade, and yet you say I am useless! Thus ungratefully, O Jupiter, do men receive their blessings!”
Moral
Our best blessings are often the least appreciated.
Townsend version
Two travelers, worn out by the heat of the summer’s sun, laid themselves down at noon under the widespreading branches of a Plane-Tree. As they rested under its shade, one of the Travelers said to the other, “What a singularly useless tree is the Plane! It bears no fruit, and is not of the least service to man.” The Plane-Tree, interrupting him, said, “You ungrateful fellows! Do you, while receiving benefits from me and resting under my shade, dare to describe me as useless, and unprofitable?’
Moral
Some men underrate their best blessings.
Platanus et Viatores
Viatores, aestatis tempore nimio meridiani solis calore laborantes, cum platanum vidissent, sub eam confugerunt, eiusque strati sub umbra recubuerunt. Ad eam deinde conversis oculis, “Quam est inutilis,” inter se aiebant, “haec arbor hominibus et infructuosa!” Illa vero respondens, “O vos,” inquit, “ingratos, qui meo adhuc beneficio fruentes, inutilem me infructuosamque vocatis.”
Perry #175