A WOLF followed a flock of sheep for a long time and did notattempt to injure one of them. The Shepherd at first stood onhis guard against him, as against an enemy, and kept a strictwatch over his movements. But when the Wolf, day after day, keptin the company of the sheep and did not make the slightest effortto seize them, the Shepherd began to look upon him as a guardianof his flock rather than as a plotter of evil against it; andwhen occasion called him one day into the city, he left the sheepentirely in his charge. The Wolf, now that he had theopportunity, fell upon the sheep, and destroyed the greater partof the flock. When the Shepherd returned to find his flockdestroyed, he exclaimed: "I have been rightly served; why did Itrust my sheep to a Wolf?'