A Cat caught a Cock, and pondered how he might find a reasonable excuse for eating him. He accused him of being a nuisance to men by crowing in the nighttime and not permitting them to sleep. The Cock defended himself by saying that he did this for the benefit of men, that they might rise in time for their labors. The Cat replied, “Although you abound in specious apologies, I shall not remain supperless;” and he made a meal of him.
Credits
Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around 620–564 BCE, whose fables have shaped moral literature across centuries. "The Cat and the Cock" is a particularly sharp example of his style — using a brief animal exchange to expose how those in power manipulate reason to justify what they intended to do all along.
