The Fighting Dog and the Dogs

A dog, raised in a house, was trained to fight wild beasts. One day, seeing many of them drawn up in a line, he broke the collar on his neck and fled through the streets. Other dogs, seeing him, powerful as a bull, said to him, "Why are you running away?" "I know well," he replied, "that I live in abundance and have every satisfaction of the stomach, but I am always close to death, fighting bears and lions." Then the dogs said to one another, "We have a fine life, though a poor one, we who fight neither lions nor bears."