Aesop's Fables

The boy who cried wolf

There once was a boy who kept sheep not far from the village. He would often become bored and to amuse himself he would call out, Wolf! Wolf," although there was no wolf around.

The villagers would stop what they were doing and run to save the sheep from the wolf''s jaw. Once they arrived at the pasture, the boy just laughed. The naughty boy played this joke over and over until the villagers got tired of him.

One day while the boy was watching the sheep, a wolf did come into the fold. The boy cried and cried, Wolf! Wolf!"

No one came. The wolf had a feast of sheep that day.

Moral of the story: No one will believe a habitual liar even when he tells the truth.

Little bear and the bees!

A Folktale, adapted by B.Z. Smith

After a long winter's nap, the Bear family woke up early on Spring day. Little Bear stretched and said, "Can I go out by myself, Mama Bear?'But remember to stay in your own garden, our forest. And watch out for the bees. All at once one little bee came buzzing, "Don't you smell my honey,!" "You're just one little bee, and I'm a growing bear!" Little Bear replied. So, he smelled the honey.

Suddenly there were two little bees, buzzing around his head. "Don't you touch our honey! ", they said.

But Little Bear just laughed again, Then Little Bear dipped his paw into the honey hive.

He pulled out a little scoop of the honey! He licked the honey.

He slurped up the honey! All at once four bees buzzed around and around his head. "Don't you taste our honey! !"But Little Bear smirked at them.

All at once... Hundreds and thousands of bees buzzed in a great swarm all around Little Bear, like a big dark cloud. "Ouch!" he yelled and jumped into a nearby river.

The bear and the bees

A bear came across a log where a swarm of bees had nested to make their honey. As he snooped around, a single little bee flew out of the log to protect the swarm. Knowing that the bear would eat all the honey, the little bee stung him sharply on the nose and flew back into the log.

This flew the bear into an angry rage. He swatted at the log with his big claws, determined to destroy the nest of bees inside. This only alerted the bees and quick as a wink, the entire swarm of bees flew out of the log and began to sting the bear from head to heel. The bear saved himself by running to and diving into the nearest pond.

Moral of the story:It is better to bear a single injury in silence rather than bring about a thousand in anger.

This is a collection of tales from the Greek story teller, Aesop. Aesop was a slave in ancient Greece. He was a keen observer of both animals and people. Most of the characters in his stories are animals, some of which take on human characteristic and are personified in ways of speech and emotions.

However, the majority of his characters retain their animalistic qualities; tortoises are slow, hares are quick and tigers eat bird. Aesop uses these qualities and natural tendencies of animals to focus on human traits and wisdom. Each fable has an accompanying moral to be learned from the tale.

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