The Shepherd and the Dog

Summary


"The Shepherd and the Dog" is a short fable by Aesop in which a shepherd, preparing to lock up his flock for the night, unknowingly moves to shut a wolf inside the fold along with his sheep. It is his loyal dog who spots the danger and speaks up, questioning how the master can expect the sheep to remain safe with a predator among them. The fable turns on a single sharp moment of overlooked threat and the courage to name it plainly.


Read Online

A Shepherd penning his sheep in the fold for the night was about to shut up a wolf with them, when his Dog perceiving the wolf said, “Master, how can you expect the sheep to be safe if you admit a wolf into the fold?”


Credits

Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around the 6th century BCE, whose fables have been retold across cultures for over two millennia. His tales typically feature animals as stand-ins for human behaviour, delivering moral lessons with striking economy — and "The Shepherd and the Dog" is among his most compact, built around a single cautionary exchange.