Prevod

Diogenes the Cynic was traveling on foot when he came to a river in flood and stood there, at a loss what to do. A man accustomed to carrying people across saw his difficulty, came up to him, and kindly lifted him onto his shoulders and carried him over. Diogenes stood lamenting his poverty, which left him unable to repay his benefactor. While he was still pondering this, the man spotted another traveler who could not cross, hurried over, and carried him across as well. Diogenes then approached him and said, “Well, I no longer feel grateful to you for what you have done, for I see that you do it not out of discernment, but from a compulsion.” The fable shows that those who bestow kindness on the unworthy as well as the worthy earn a reputation not for generosity, but rather for thoughtlessness.