308.The Thieves and the Cock
SOME THIEVES broke into a house and found nothing but a cock, whom they stole, and got off as fast as they could. On arriving at home they prepared to kill the cock, who thus pleaded for his life:
“Pray spare me; I am very serviceable to men. I wake them up in the night to their work.”
“That is the very reason why we must the more kill you,” they replied; “for when you wake your neighbours, you entirely put an end to our business.”
❖ The safeguards of virtue are hateful to those with evil intentions.
307.The Thief and the Innkeeper
A THIEF hired a room in a tavern and stayed a while in the hope of stealing something which should enable him to pay his reckoning. When he had waited some days in vain, he saw the innkeeper dressed in a new and handsome coat and sitting before his door. The thief sat down beside him and talked with him. As the conversation began to flag, the thief yawned terribly and at the same time howled like a wolf. The innkeeper said,
“Why do you howl so fearfully?”
306.The Thief and the House-Dog
A THIEF came in the night to break into a house. He brought with him several slices of meat in order to pacify the house-dog, so that he would not alarm his master by barking. As the thief threw him the pieces of meat, the dog said,
“If you think to stop my mouth, you will be greatly mistaken. This sudden kindness at your hands will only make me more watchful, lest under these unexpected favors to myself, you have some private ends to accomplish for your own benefit, and for my master’s injury.”
❖ Having great suspicions and a fierce temper are two of the things the watchdog thrives by.
305.The Thief and His Mother
A BOY stole a lesson-book from one of his school-fellows and took it home to his mother. She not only abstained from beating him, but encouraged him. He next time stole a cloak and brought it to her, and she again commended him. The youth, advanced to adulthood, proceeded to steal things of still greater value. At last he was caught in the very act, and having his hands bound behind him, was led away to the place of public execution. His mother followed in the crowd and violently beat her breast in sorrow, whereupon the young man said,
“I wish to say something to my mother in her ear.”
She came close to him, and he quickly seized her ear with his teeth and bit it off. The mother upbraided him as an unnatural child, whereon he replied,
“Ah! if you had beaten me when I first stole and brought to you that lesson-book, I should not have come to this, nor have been thus led to a disgraceful death.”
❖ It seems too late to upbraid a rascal son when he has bitten your ear off.
❖ Prefer to admonish in private, and praise in public.
