An Old Man was employed in cutting wood in the forest, and, in carrying the bundles to the city for sale one day, became very wearied with his long journey. He sat down by the wayside, and throwing down his load, besought “Death” to come. “Death” immediately appeared in answer to his summons and asked for what reason he had called him. The Old Man hurriedly replied, “That, lifting up the load, you may place it again upon my shoulders.”
Credits
Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around 620–564 BCE, whose fables have shaped moral literature across cultures for over two millennia. "The Old Man and Death" is one of his shortest yet most psychologically pointed tales, distilling an entire truth about the human will to survive into a single, ironic exchange.
