A certain wolf, though cautious, yet ravenous withal,
Saw a carcass, advanced and landed in a pitfall.
He sat in the pit, sighing, then all at once heard sheep.
They looked down at the wolf barely breathing in the deep.
At length he spoke, and said with most gentle countenance:
“I didn’t fall in, I am down here to do penance —
I’m doing penance for having assaulted, menaced,
For having devoured you…” When the sheep heard this, they asked:
“Come out of the pit!…” “I will not!…” “We will lift you out…”
The wolf demurred but, at the last, yielded to their shout.
The sheep set to work, and so did they set about it
That ere long they had lifted the wolf out of the pit.
The wolf, rescued from the trap, desired his faith to keep,
And so, slashed, strangled and devoured all the foolish sheep.
This is taken from Fables and Poems (1779) by Ignacy Krasicki
