The Wolf's Misfortune
Once upon a time, at the edge of a secluded forest where cool waters flowed gently, lived a hungry wolf. This dappled wolf, whose stomach had been empty for days, felt his appetite rise impatiently whenever he saw the plump animals grazing in the valley. Yet this proud creature, who boasted of his cunning, trusted not only in his strength but also in his mind. While he was watching for an opportunity in the depths of the forest, a brown mare grazing peacefully in the nearby meadow caught his eye. Approaching the mare with sly steps, the wolf growled: "Say your last prayer, for I shall eat you for breakfast." The clever mare, without showing any fear, said: "You may eat me, but on my hind hoof there is a will written by a master farrier."
When the wolf, overcome by curiosity, bent down to read the will, the mare let fly a kick so violently that it broke the wolf's jaw. Reeling back in pain, the wolf, stunned by what had befallen him, fled from there and took shelter by the stream. Just then he noticed that a plump ram was grazing on the opposite bank of the stream. Despite his limping leg, he approached the ram and shouted: "This time you shall not escape my grasp." The ram smiled calmly and said: "If you want to eat me without tiring yourself, open your mouth at the foot of the hill and I shall leap straight into your throat." The greedy wolf accepted this offer at once and opened his mouth as wide as it would go at the foot of the hill.
Running down the hill at full speed, the ram struck the wolf's chest with his hard horns so hard that the wolf was laid out on the ground. The luckless wolf, his bones aching where he had fallen, struggled for a long while to breathe amid the dust and dirt. He thought one by one of the disasters he had suffered while trusting his own cunning too much and chasing easy prey. He realized that he had been slow to understand that he knew neither how to read nor how to catch prey flying in the air. While the wise animals went on grazing merrily, the unlucky wolf crawled wretchedly toward the depths of the forest. Those who deem their own mind superior to that of others end up in the end as victims of their own cunning. The hunter often becomes the hunted.