aesop's fables

"❁the countryman and the snake

a countryman was walking home to his family from a long wintry day hunting,
when he came across a brown snake curled up on a stone, half frozen.
taking pity on the animal, he tucked it in his pack with his meat.

when he got home, he placed it by the fire.
the snake became warm and healthy again, and slithered along the wooden floor.
as the countryman bent down to pick it up and then release it into the wild,
the snake leaped onto his son and attacked him.
not long after that, the snake bit the countryman's daughters and wife.
and not long after that, the snake laid dead at the countryman's feet.

do not reject kindness, no matter how small, or you might pay dearly.