Ī Jewish Midrash version, dating from the 1st century CE, tells how an Egyptian partridge extracts a thorn from the tongue of a lion. On testing his gratitude later, the woodpecker is given the same answer as the wolf's and reflects on the wisdom of avoiding future harm through association with the violent:įrom the ignoble hope not to obtain The due requital of good service done, From bitter thought and angry word refrain, But haste the presence of the wretch to shun. In this it is a woodpecker that dislodges the bone from a lion's throat, having first taken the precaution of propping its mouth open with a stick. The story is very close in detail to the Javasakuna Jataka in the Buddhist scriptures.

But when the Crane asked for his reward, the Wolf replied, 'You have put your head inside a wolf’s mouth and taken it out again in safety that ought to be reward enough for you.' In early versions, where Phaedrus has a crane, Babrius has a heron, but a wolf is involved in both. At last the Crane agreed to try and, putting its long bill down the Wolf's throat, loosened the bone and took it out. The fable and its alternative versions Ī feeding wolf got a small bone stuck in his throat and, in terrible pain, begged the other animals for help, promising a reward. Similar stories have a lion instead of a wolf, and a stork, heron or partridge takes the place of the crane. The Wolf and the Crane is a fable attributed to Aesop that has several eastern analogues. With the Farmer came his Lapdog, who danced about and licked his hand and frisked about as happy as could be.Stephan Horota's sculpture of the fable in Berlin's Treptower Park, 1968 ‘This is a double death,’ growled the Lion.Ī Farmer one day came to the stables to see to his beasts of burden: among them was his favourite Ass, that was always well fed and often carried his master. When they saw him on the point of death they thought to themselves: ‘Now is the time to pay off old grudges.’ So the Boar came up and drove at him with his tusks then a Bull gored him with his horns still the Lion lay helpless before them: so the Ass, feeling quite safe from danger, came up, and turning his tail to the Lion kicked up his heels into his face. The animals, his subjects, came round him and drew nearer as he grew more and more helpless. A Lion had come to the end of his days and lay sick unto death at the mouth of his cave, gasping for breath.

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