Aesop's Fables 58

The Laborer and the Nightingale 

A Laborer lay listening to a Nightingale's song throughout the summer night. So pleased was he with it that the next night he set a trap for it and captured it. 

"Now that I have caught you," he cried, "you shall always sing to me."

"We Nightingales never sing in a cage," said the bird. 

"Then I'll eat you," said the Laborer. "I have always heard say that nightingale on toast is a dainty morsel."

"Nay, kill me not," said the Nightingale, "but let me free, and I'll tell you three things of far better worth than my poor body." 

The Laborer let him loose, and he flew up to a branch of a tree and said: 

"Never believe a captive's promise; that's one thing. 

"Then again: Keep what you have. 

"And a third piece of advice is: Sorrow not over what is lost forever." 

Then the songbird flew away.