【英】《伊索寓言》第21集：The Donkey and the Lion’s Skin

Once a donkey decided to leave his small village and seek adventure. He trotted through the countryside, looking at anything that caught his eye. He saw many new things and considered himself quite the adventurer.

Then he came upon a lion’s skin hanging across a fence to dry. The donkey slipped on the lion skin and trotted down to a pond to see his reflection. He thought he made a very fine lion.

As he pranced around, the donkey noticed that all the animals and birds fled before him. “They think me a lion,” he realized. Then he decided to have some fun.

He trotted back to his home village, enjoying the looks on the faces of everyone he passed as they fled from him. Even the people of the village ran into their homes and barred their windows.

“What a wild and scary creature I am,” the donkey brayed as he kicked up his heels in the village square. 

The people of the village heard the donkey’s bray and realized they had been tricked. They came out of their homes and pulled the lion’s skin from the donkey.

The donkey’s owner chased the donkey home, giving him stout smacks along the way. When the donkey finally got home, tired and sore, he hung his head.

Along came a fox who said, “That was a clever trick. I was fooled until you opened your mouth. Fine clothes may fool people, but everyone recognizes a silly creature by the way it speaks.”