A kind-hearted farmer found a snake in the snow, half-frozen. "You poor thing!" he said, and he picked up the snake and put it inside his cloak to keep it warm.
Then, when he got home, he placed the snake beside the fire.
As the snake warmed up, it returned to life and began to hiss at everyone in the house, spraying venom.
The farmer grabbed an ax to fend off the snake as he denounced the snake's behavior with angry words. "What kind of gratitude is this?" he exclaimed. "I saved your life, yet you're trying to kill me!"
Inspired by: Mille Fabulae et Una, a collection of Latin fables that I've edited, free to read online. I am not translating the Latin here; instead, I am just telling a 100-word version of the fable.
Notes: This is fable 829 in the book, which is Perry 176. In a similar fable, as soon as the snake warms up inside the man's cloak, the snake bites him and he dies.
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