The Lamb and the Wolf

A wolf chased a lamb. The lamb ran into a temple and pressed against the wall, breathing hard.

The wolf stopped at the door and called, “Come out. If the priest finds you, he will offer you as a sacrifice. Better face me than that knife.”

The lamb answered, “I would rather die as an offering in this holy place than be your meal.”

About this fable

This fable is “The Lamb and the Wolf” from Aesop’s Fables: A New Revised Version From Original Sources, an illustrated edition published in New York in 1884 by Frank F. Lovell and Company. There the whole fable is two sentences long and ends with the moral that it is safer to be among friends than among enemies.

The wolf’s warning refers to the animal sacrifices once made at ancient temples, a fate the lamb still prefers to being eaten. That hard choice is the point of the fable, so it is kept, but told without detail.

Read the original: Aesop’s Fables: A New Revised Version From Original Sources, 1884 (Project Gutenberg #18732)

Best for ages 6–8 — a very short fable with a serious choice in it, for children ready to talk about danger and safety.

A closer reading

The wolf changes tactics when pursuit fails: he now speaks as if he is offering safety. But his own intention has not changed. The lamb’s reply refuses to let the predator choose between the two dangers on its behalf.

No priest enters and no sacrifice takes place in the narrated action. The wolf describes that possible danger to persuade the lamb to leave its refuge. The source’s friends-versus-enemies moral is therefore more straightforward than the story’s uneasy choice; it need not be read as a recommendation to seek sacrifice.

Try this with the story

Underline what actually happens and put a question mark beside what the wolf predicts. Explain how separating an observed threat from an interested speaker’s warning changes your reading of the lamb’s decision.

Talk about it

• Why did the lamb run into the temple?
• Why would the lamb rather stay in the temple than go out to the wolf?
• The moral says it is safer to be among friends than enemies. Do you agree? Why?

Related stories

• The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing — another Aesop wolf whose tricks do not work out as he planned
• The Ant and the Dove — a gentler fable from the same illustrated 1884 Aesop book
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf — a shepherd boy learns what happens when a wolf really comes