A Traveler met Truth and asked why Truth was in the country. Truth said that while before there were few liars in the city, now there are many.
Falsehood is with all men.
Townsend version
A wayfaring man, traveling in the desert, met a woman standing alone and terribly dejected. He inquired of her, “Who art thou?” “My name is Truth,” she replied. “And for what cause,” he asked, “have you left the city to dwell alone here in the wilderness?” She made answer, “Because in former times, falsehood was with few, but is now with all men.”
Babrius Translation (The Traveller and Truth)
In a lone spot, with no one by her side,
And much cast down, a traveller espied
A noble dame, who seem’d in evil case.
Said he, “Why dost thou tarry in this place?
“What ails thee, lady? Who art thou, in sooth?”
“If thou wouldst know,” she answer’d, “I am Truth!”
At this amazed, the traveller ask’d her, “Why,
“Haunting lone spots, from cities dost thou fly?”
To which the goddess of deep mind replied,
“Because aforetime there were few that lied.
“But now hath falsehood spread o’er all mankind,
“And if thou’lt hear, and I may speak my mind,
“Man’s life in these days evil we shall find.”
Perry #355