The Goatherd and the Wild Goats – an English fairy tale from Aesop’s fables with narration and video and vocabulary practice to improve your reading and listening comprehension
Source of story: Gutenberg Project at www.gutenberg.org
The Goatherd and the Wild Goats
A goatherd, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some wild goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night.
The next day it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the fold.
He gave his own goats just sufficient food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own.
When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the wild goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains.
The goatherd scolded them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd.
One of them, turning about, said to him: “That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us better than the goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would in the same manner prefer them to ourselves.”
Related idioms, proverbs or phrases
Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
The main lesson of the fable is that being loyal and trustworthy is important for having good relationships. It teaches us that it’s better to have friends we can trust than to rely on those who might act selfishly or cause problems.
That’s a great interpretation of “The Goatherd and the Wild Goats.” I agree—the fable emphasizes the value of loyalty and trust in fostering meaningful relationships. It serves as a cautionary tale about prioritizing temporary gains or new connections over those who have been steadfast and reliable. The story also highlights the idea that trust and loyalty need to be mutual. Just as the goatherd lost the trust of his original goats by favoring the wild ones, we too risk alienating those who truly care for us if we neglect them in favor of those who might not reciprocate our kindness.