A stork of a very simple and trusting nature had been asked by a gay party of cranes to visit a field that had been newly planted. But the party ended dismally with all the birds entangled in the meshes of the farmer’s net.
The stork begged the farmer to spare him.
“Please let me go,” he pleaded. “I belong to the stork family who you know are honest and birds of good character. Besides, I did not know the cranes were going to steal.”
“The Farmer and the Stork,” illustrated by Milo Winter, from “The Aesop for Children,” 1919. PD-US
“You may be a very good bird,” answered the farmer, “but I caught you with the thieving cranes and you will have to share the same punishment with them.”
You are judged by the company you keep.
This fable is reproduced from “The Aesop for Children” (1919).
Aesop (c. 620–564 B.C.) was a Greek storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as “Aesop’s Fables.” His tales, with their moral value, have long influenced our culture and civilization, contributing not only to the education and moral character building of children, but also, with their universal appeal, to the self-reflection of adults alike who have chosen to embrace the virtues or heed the warnings within.
