The Mother and the Wolf

Summary

This short fable presents a clever narrative about a Wolf who is misled by the contradictory statements of a human mother. At first, drawn to a cottage by the threatening words of a mother telling her crying child that she will throw them out for the Wolf to eat, the Wolf waits patiently for this promise to be fulfilled. However, later that evening, the same mother comforts her child by saying that they would kill the Wolf if it appeared. Realizing he has been deceived by taking a human's words at face value, the disillusioned Wolf returns home hungry and cold. The tale serves as a moral lesson on the unreliability of words and the potential for them to be used manipulatively, highlighting the consequences of gullibility.

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A famished Wolf was prowling about in the morning in search of food. As he passed the door of a cottage built in the forest, he heard a Mother say to her child, “Be quiet, or I will throw you out of the window, and the Wolf shall eat you.” The Wolf sat all day waiting at the door. In the evening he heard the same woman fondling her child and saying: “You are quiet now, and if the Wolf should come, we will kill him.” The Wolf, hearing these words, went home, gasping with cold and hunger. When he reached his den, Mistress Wolf inquired of him why he returned wearied and supperless, so contrary to his wont. He replied: “Why, forsooth! use I gave credence to the words of a woman!”