The Farmer and the Stork

The Farmer and the Stork is one of Aesop's fables which appears in Greek in the collections of both Babrius and Aphthonius and has differed little in the telling over the centuries. The story relates how a farmer plants traps in his field to catch the cranes and geese that are stealing the seeds he has sown. When he checks the traps, he finds among the other birds a stork, who pleads to be spared because it is harmless and has taken no part in the theft. The farmer replies that since it has been caught in the company of thieves, it must suffer the same fate. The moral of the story, which is announced beforehand in the oldest texts, is that associating with bad companions will lead to bad consequences.

The Farmer and the Stork, illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 Aesop anthology

Although the story line remains more or less constant, the fable has been differently titled. In the Perry Index, where it is numbered 194, it is a fowler who has caught the stork in his nets.[1] In his catalogue of the fables, Adrados refers simply to a bird-catcher and relates the story of a farmer,[2] as does the Neo-Latin poet Hieronymus Osius (1564).[3] For William Caxton (1484) he was a labourer[4] and in Samuel Croxall's collection (1722) he is called a husbandman.[5]

References

Aesopica site
Francisco Rodríguez Adrados, History of the Graeco-latin Fable 3, Leiden 1999, pp.269-71
Fable 63
Fable 6.9
Fable 154

External links

Illustrations in books

Aesop
Aesop's Fables	The Ant and the Grasshopper The Ass and his Masters The Ass and the Pig The Ass Carrying an Image The Ass in the Lion's Skin The Astrologer who Fell into a Well The Bear and the Travelers The Belly and the Members The Bird-catcher and the Blackbird The Bird in Borrowed Feathers The Boy Who Cried Wolf The Cat and the Mice The Cock and the Jewel The Cock, the Dog and the Fox The Crow and the Pitcher The Crow and the Snake The Deer without a Heart The Dog and Its Reflection The Dog and the Wolf The Dove and the Ant The Farmer and the Stork The Farmer and the Viper The Fir and the Bramble The Fisherman and the Little Fish The Fowler and the Snake The Fox and the Crow The Fox and the Grapes The Fox and the Lion The Fox and the Mask The Fox and the Sick Lion The Fox and the Stork The Fox and the Weasel The Fox and the Woodman The Frog and the Ox The Frogs Who Desired a King The Goat and the Vine The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs The Honest Woodcutter The Horse and the Donkey The Horse that Lost its Liberty The Lion and the Mouse The Lion, the Bear and the Fox The Man with Two Mistresses The Mischievous Dog The Miser and his Gold The Mountain in Labour The Mouse and the Oyster The North Wind and the Sun The Oak and the Reed The Old Man and Death The Old Woman and the Doctor The Rose and the Amaranth The Satyr and the Traveller The Sick Kite The Snake and the Crab The Snake in the Thorn Bush The Tortoise and the Hare Town Mouse and Country Mouse The Travellers and the Plane Tree The Trees and the Bramble The Two Pots The Walnut Tree Washing the Ethiopian White The Wolf and the Crane The Wolf and the Lamb The Woodcutter and the Trees The Young Man and the Swallow
Apocryphal	An ass eating thistles The Bear and the Gardener Belling the Cat (also known as The Mice in Council) The Blindman and the Lame The Boy and the Filberts Chanticleer and the Fox The Dog in the Manger The drowned woman and her husband The Elm and the Vine The Fox and the Cat The Gourd and the Palm-tree The Hawk and the Nightingale Jumping from the frying pan into the fire The Milkmaid and Her Pail The miller, his son and the donkey The Monkey and the Cat The Priest and the Wolf The Scorpion and the Frog The Shepherd and the Lion Still Waters Run Deep The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Related	Jataka tales Panchatantra Perry Index The labyrinth of Versailles The Lion's Share Aesop's Fables (album)
Screen adaptations	Aesop's Film Fables The Grasshopper and the Ants
Print adaptations	Ysopet The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian "The Cock and the Jasp" "The Taill of how this forsaid Tod maid his Confessioun to Freir Wolf Waitskaith" "The Taill of Schir Chanticleir and the Foxe" "The Taill of the Uponlandis Mous and the Burges Mous" La Fontaine's Fables
Translators	Demetrius of Phalerum Phaedrus Babrius Avianus Dositheus Magister Alexander Neckam Adémar de Chabannes Odo of Cheriton John Lydgate Kawanabe Kyōsai Laurentius Abstemius Roger L'Estrange Gabriele Faerno Hieronymus Osius Marie de France Robert Henryson Jean de La Fontaine Ivan Krylov Nicolas Trigault Zhang Geng Robert Thom Zhou Zuoren

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