The Dog In The Manger

Summary


"The Dog In The Manger" is one of Aesop's sharpest short fables about selfishness and spite. A dog claims a hay-filled manger as his own, snarling at tired, hungry cattle who desperately need what he cannot even use himself. The cattle watch in disgust as the dog guards something utterly worthless to him, refusing to share out of pure possessiveness. When the farmer discovers the scene, he has no patience for such mean-spirited greed — and acts swiftly.

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A Dog asleep in a manger filled with hay, was awakened by the Cattle, which came in tired and hungry from working in the field. But the Dog would not let them get near the manger, and snarled and snapped as if it were filled with the best of meat and bones, all for himself.

The Cattle looked at the Dog in disgust. “How selfish he is!” said one. “He cannot eat the hay and yet he will not let us eat it who are so hungry for it!”

Now the farmer came in. When he saw how the Dog was acting, he seized a stick and drove him out of the stable with many a blow for his selfish behavior.

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Credits

Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around 620–564 BCE, whose fables have shaped moral literature across the world for over two millennia. "The Dog In The Manger" gave rise to an enduring idiom still used today to describe someone who selfishly withholds what they cannot use themselves. His fables were passed down orally before being compiled and translated into countless languages and literary traditions.