In the summer season, an ant roaming the countryside was gathering grains of wheat and barley, and laying them by to feed on in winter. A dung-beetle saw her and was astonished to see her so hard at work, toiling at the very time when the other animals, free of their labours, were taking their ease. At the moment the ant said nothing; but later, when winter came and the rain soaked the dung, the famished beetle came to beg the ant for the alms of a little food. The ant then said to him, "O beetle, if you had worked at the time when I was taking pains and you were jeering at me, you would not now be short of food."
Those who in times of plenty give no thought to the future fall into extreme misery when the times change.
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