The Man and the Weasel

A man had caught a weasel and was about to kill her when the weasel protested loudly.
"Spare me, good sir!" she squealed. "Just think of all the mice I've killed on your behalf, keeping your house free of vermin and protecting your pantry."
Laughing scornfully, the man replied, "You did not protect my pantry. Just the opposite: you raided the pantry! First you ate the mice, and then you ate all the food you could get your paws on as well — my cheese, my meat, my eggs. You deserve a double death for being both greedy and a hypocrite!"


Inspired by: Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Roger L'Estrange, 441.
Notes: This is Perry 293.

Here is an illustration from Steinhowel's Aesop:



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