A goatherd, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some wild goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night.
The next day it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the foId. He gave his own goats just sufficient food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantIy in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own.
When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the wild goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains. The goatherd scolded them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd.
One of them, turning about, said to him,“That is the very reason why we are so cautious;as you treat us better than the goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others come after us, you will in the same manner prefer them to ourselves.”
黃昏時分,牧羊人趕著他的羊群放牧歸來時,發(fā)現(xiàn)有幾只野山羊也夾雜在其中。他把它們和自己的羊關(guān)在一起,過了一夜。
第二天,下起了大雪,牧羊人不能帶著羊群去它們以往吃草的地方了,只得讓它們待在羊欄里。他給自己的羊的食物只夠填飽肚子,而喂那幾只野山羊的食物要豐盛得多,他想以此引誘它們留下來,歸他所有。
冰雪剛一融化,他把所有的羊放出來吃東西,而那幾只野山羊拼命地向山里跑去。牧羊人責(zé)怪它們忘恩負(fù)義,就這樣棄他而去了,說暴風(fēng)雪期間他對它們的照顧比對自己的羊還要多。
一只野山羊聽到后,轉(zhuǎn)過頭來對他說:“這正是我們提防你的原因。因?yàn)槟銓ξ覀儽葘Ω四隳敲撮L時間的羊都好,那么,很顯然,如果在我們之后又有羊加入的話,你又會同樣地去喜歡它們而忽略我們?!?/p>