They took the way he showed them, and soon they found themselves in this world. And God said to his companion:
“From this day onward, the flock of this shepherd, who has given us good advice, so courteously, shall no longer suffer from the gad-fly (and the running madness), and they shall only run at times of rain and wind. They will henceforth feed quietly, and the shepherd also will be able to sit down and play his pipe.” And from that day on the sheep feed quietly, and the shepherd can tend them in peace and comfort, for the sheep do not suffer from the gad-fly (Hypoderma bovis), whilst the cowherds must weary their legs, as otherwise their cattle would disappear.
There is a Macedonian variation:
Once upon a time God changed into a very old man. Walking one day in a terrific heat, he met a cowherd and asked him for a drop of water, for he said he would die of thirst. “Die,” replied the cowboy, and would neither give him a drop of water nor tell him where to find it.
God found afterwards a shepherd hotly pursuing his sheep, and the perspiration running down him. “Give me a drop of water, for I die,” said God.
“I give you willingly, but my sheep have run away and I do not know how to gather them”; and going to a fountain at the foot of a hill he took some in his fur cap and gave him to drink. God gathered the sheep, and blessed them to be God’s flock, who should never henceforth separate on the road or be scattered. Remembering the cowherd, he cursed him and said: “The gad-fly is always to scatter his herd just when the heat is greatest, so that he may run like mad.”
Therefore the sheep always walk together in flocks, and gather together in hot summer weather in the shade. And for that reason the oxen are driven mad by the fly in the hot season, and they run like mad as if they were ridden by devils. The cowherd has to run after them, and there are but few fountains in Thessaly from which to slacken his thirst.