Aesop's Fables

#170 The Laborer and the Nightingale

A Laborer lay listening to a Nightingale's song throughout the summer night. So pleased was he with it that the next night he set a trap for it and captured it. "Now that I have caught thee," he cried, "thou shalt always sing to me."

"We Nightingales never sing in a cage." said the bird.

"Then I'll eat thee." said the Laborer. "I have always heard say that a nightingale on toast is dainty morsel."

"Nay, kill me not," said the Nightingale; "but let me free, and I'll tell thee three things far better worth than my poor body."

The Laborer let him loose, and he flew up to a branch of a tree and said: "Never believe a captive's promise; that's one thing.

Then again: Keep what you have.

And third piece of advice is: Sorrow not over what is lost forever."

Then the song-bird flew away.