A WOLF followed a flock of sheep for a long time and did not
attempt to injure one of them. The Shepherd at first stood on
his guard against him, as against an enemy, and kept a strict
watch over his movements. But when the Wolf, day after day, kept
in the company of the sheep and did not make the slightest effort
to seize them, the Shepherd began to look upon him as a guardian
of his flock rather than as a plotter of evil against it; and
when occasion called him one day into the city, he left the sheep
entirely in his charge. The Wolf, now that he had the
opportunity, fell upon the sheep, and destroyed the greater part
of the flock. When the Shepherd returned to find his flock
destroyed, he exclaimed: “I have been rightly served; why did I
trust my sheep to a Wolf?’