A Fox one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. Then they wept and wailed and called on Mercury to help them. How to get them was the question. So he left his home in the woods and fields and flew down to live on the lakes and in the marshes. Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the tail and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn Ass would not yield and pulled with all his might. When at last he had succeeded, he gorged himself to bursting. And there, he who had defeated the King of beasts came to a miserable end, the prey of a little spider.
It is easy to be brave when there is no danger.