Aesop's Fables

A Lion, growing old, lay sick in his cave. All the beasts came to visit their king, except the Fox. The Wolf, therefore, thinking that he had an excellent opportunity, accused the Fox before the Lion of showing no respect to the one who ruled over them all and of not coming to visit him. At that very moment the Fox came in and heard these last words of the Wolf. As the Lion roared at him in a rage, the Fox sought an opportunity to defend himself and said, “And who of all those who have come to you has benefited you as much as I, who have traveled from place to place in every direction and have sought and learned from the physicians the means of healing you?” The Lion ordered him to tell him the cure immediately, and he replied, “You must flay a wolf alive and wrap his skin around you while it is still warm.” The Wolf was seized at once and flayed, and the Fox, turning to him, said with a smile, “You should have moved your master not to ill will but to good will.”