Prevod

An eagle was pursuing a hare. With no one to help him, the hare caught sight of a dung beetle, the only creature chance had put in his path, and begged for protection. The beetle reassured him and, when he saw the eagle approaching, pleaded with it not to carry off one who had sought his protection. But the eagle, scorning the beetle’s small size, devoured the hare before his very eyes. From that day on, the beetle nursed his grudge, keeping watch over the eagle’s nests. Whenever the eagle laid eggs, he flew up, rolled them out, and smashed them. At last, driven from every nesting place, the eagle took refuge with Zeus—for the eagle is sacred to Zeus—and begged him for a safe place to raise its young. Zeus allowed the eagle to lay its eggs in his lap. Seeing this, the beetle made a ball of dung, flew up, and dropped it into Zeus’s lap. Zeus sprang to his feet to shake off the dung and unwittingly sent the eggs tumbling to the ground. Since then, they say, eagles do not nest during the season when dung beetles appear.

The fable teaches us to despise no one, remembering that no one is so powerless that, when insulted, they cannot take revenge.