I.
And Anadan said: "Forgive me, my father, and let me be the meanest of swineherds, only let me live." But Arkirie said: "No, my son, thou hast acted towards me in the same manner as the wolf acted when he went to the teacher to be taught; for whilst the teacher said A B C D, the wolf said: 'For the lambs' and 'for the sheep' and 'for the goats' and 'for the kids'; in the same manner hast thou acted towards me, my son."
II.
And he began to beat him. And Anadan said: "Have mercy on me, and I will be a shepherd." And Arkirie said: "Thou hast acted towards me as the wolf who followed the sheep and met the shepherd, who said to him: 'Thank thee.' And he asked him: 'Whither art thou going so fast?' And the wolf said: 'I follow the track of the sheep, for an old woman told me that the dust of the sheep was wholesome for the eyes.' In the same manner hast thou acted against me."
III.
And he began again to beat him, but Anadan said: "Have pity on me, and I will groom thy horses." But Arkirie said: "No, my son, thou hast acted towards me like a man who, leading an ass on the road, tied it with a loose rope. The ass broke the rope and ran away. On his way he met the wolf, and the wolf said unto him: 'Happy journey unto thee, ass!' And the ass replied: 'Unhappy it will be, for the man tied me up with a rotten rope, so that I broke it and ran away, and he did not tie me with a good rope.'" And Arkirie continued to beat him until he died (M. Gaster, Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Society, 1900, p. 309).
A larger number of animal fables are found in the other versions of Ahikar, thus in the Armenian (Story of Ahikar, edited by Rendel Harris Conybeare, etc., second edition, Cambridge, 1913, p. 51), and in the Slavonic (ibid. pp. 21 and 22).
