The Dog and His Reflection
Crossing a bridge with a bone in his mouth, a dog is fooled by his reflection in the water.
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A dog snatched a fine bone from the town butcher. He took the bone in his mouth and hurried away so that nobody could take it from him. His path led to a small wooden bridge over a stream.
He stopped in the middle of the bridge and looked down. There was a dog in the water. And it had a huge bone in its mouth too! The dog looked closer: "That bone looks bigger than mine," he thought. "If I take it as well, I'll have two bones."
He growled at the dog in the water. The dog in the water growled back. The dog bared his teeth; so did the one in the water. At last he could stand it no longer: he opened his mouth to grab the bone in the water and barked: "Woof!"
His own bone slipped out of his mouth, fell into the water with a plop, sank and disappeared with the current. The dog in the water scattered into ripples together with its bone. Because it had been his own reflection.
The dog stood on the bridge with his mouth empty. Neither his own bone nor the other one was left.
On the way home he grumbled to himself: "If I had been content with what I had, my belly would be full now. Reaching for more, I lost what I had."
And from that day on, whenever he crossed the bridge, he never looked at the water. He just held tight to the bone in his mouth.
The tale ends here. Sleep well.
The Dog and His Reflection is a children's tale from Aesop, suitable for ages 3-8 and about 2 minutes long. Read it free on Masal Merkezi, play a lullaby or nature sound in the background, tap any word to see its Turkish meaning and save it to your favorites. For similar tales browse the Aesop's Fables category.
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