The Cat covered herself with a dust rag, and smeared herself with flour. The mice approached her, saying:
“Wretch, we see through your dust rag!”
Then she pretended to be dead, and lay in the path of the mice, who approached her and said:
“Miserable cheat, although your skin be made into a purse, we could not believe that you had given up your habitual knavery.”
This fable shows that when you have once found out a person of dishonest, treacherous, and evil character, you should not trust him, even if he tries to do right, for he cannot change his nature.
The Fox and the Wolf
The Fox deceived the Wolf, telling him that if he delivered a letter to the heads of the village, they would give him food to bring back. When the Wolf reached the village the dogs fell upon him, biting and wounding him. When he returned in a sad plight the Fox said to him: “Why did you not show your letter?”
“I did show it,” was the reply, “but there were a thousand dogs, who did not know the handwriting.”
This fable shows that there are many people ignorant, though brave, with whom it is best not to dispute or to mix, but prudently to keep away from them.