The Two Frogs

Summary


"The Two Frogs" is a short Aesop fable about two frogs forced to abandon their dried-up pool in search of a new home. When they stumble upon a deep well brimming with water, one frog eagerly suggests they jump in and settle there — but the other hesitates, asking a sharp and unsettling question: what if the water runs dry again? With no way to climb back out, would they be trapped forever? The story turns on that single moment of caution against the pull of an easy solution.


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Two Frogs dwelt in the same pool. When the pool dried up under the summer’s heat, they left it and set out together for another home. As they went along they chanced to pass a deep well, amply supplied with water, and when they saw it, one of the Frogs said to the other, “Let us descend and make our abode in this well: it will furnish us with shelter and food.” The other replied with greater caution, “But suppose the water should fail us. How can we get out again from so great a depth?”


Credits

Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around 620–564 BCE, whose fables have been retold across centuries and cultures. "The Two Frogs" is a compact example of his signature style — a brief scenario stripped down to a single moral dilemma, with animals standing in for very human impulses.