Aesop's Fables

A Wolf followed a flock of sheep for a long time and did not attempt to harm a single one of them. At first the Shepherd stood on guard against him, as against an enemy, and kept a strict watch over his movements. But when the Wolf, day after day, kept company with the sheep and did not make the slightest effort to seize them, the Shepherd began to look on him as a guardian of his flock rather than as a plotter of evil against it. When he had to go into the city one day, he left the sheep entirely in the Wolf’s charge. The Wolf, now that he had the opportunity, fell on the sheep and destroyed the greater part of the flock. When the Shepherd returned to find his flock destroyed, he exclaimed, “It serves me right! Why did I trust my sheep to a Wolf?”