一隻狼瞧見一隻迷路失群的小羊,一心想吃掉小怑,但是決定暫緩對牠下毒手,先想找點理由出來,對小羊證明自己有吃它的權利。
狼就說:「小鬼。你去年曾經痛罵過我。」
小羊可憐地說:「老實說,去年,我還未出生呢。」
狼再說:「你在我的草原上吃過草。」
小羊回答說:「不,好先生,我還不曾嘗過草的味道呢。」
狼又說:「你喝過我溪裡的水。」
小羊叫道:「不,我沒喝過水,因為直到現在,我全是吃著母親的奶汁。」
狼一聽這話,還是抓住它,把羊吃了。說:「好,即使你反駁每一句話,我終究要吃掉你的。」
人們對於想要做的事,總會找到藉口
The Wolf and the Lamb
An Aesop's Fable
Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. "There's my supper," thought he, "if only I can find some excuse to seize it." Then he called out to the Lamb, "How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?"
"Nay, master, nay," said Lambikin; "if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me."
"Well, then," said the Wolf, "why did you call me bad names this time last year?"
"That cannot be," said the Lamb; "I am only six months old."
"I don't care," snarled the Wolf; "if it was not you it was your father;" and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out:
Moral of Aesops Fable: "Any excuse will serve a tyrant."
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