A famished Wolf was prowling about in search of food one morning. As he passed the door of a cottage built in a forest, he heard a mother say to her child,—

“Be quiet, or I will throw you out of the window, and the Wolf shall eat you.”

The Wolf sat all day waiting at the door. In the evening he heard the same woman fondling and petting her child, and saying,—

“He’s a good boy now, and if the Wolf should come, we will kill him.”

The Wolf, hearing these words, went home, gaping with cold and hunger. On his reaching his den, Mistress Wolf inquired of him why he returned tired and supperless, so contrary to his wont. He replied, “Why, forsooth! because I believed what a woman said!”