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Many of the best-known Aesopic fables refrain from overt preaching, depicting instead selected episodes of human behavior, without comment. Aesop thus holds a mirror up to humanity, and he does not always like the reflection that he sees. However, he does not need to burden his depictions with explicit value judgments. The perceptive reader will understand.
“The Sick Stag” (no. 177) is the timeless tale of a sick animal surrounded by well-wishers who thoughtlessly eat all the nearby grass, thus inadvertently causing their friend to perish from hunger. The central character in “The Miser” (no. 262) gloats over his treasure but makes no practical use of it. The fox without a tail, in the fable bearing that title (no. 83), having lost his own tail in a trap, tries to talk all his fellow foxes into cutting off their tails to divert attention from his own loss. Another fox, in “The Foxes and the River” (no. 263), recklessly steps into a river and is swept away, but he refuses to admit that he has made a mistake and pretends to be going for a leisurely swim. Open a collection of Aesop’s fables at random, and you will almost certainly find a tale reflecting an unpleasant aspect of human behavior and psychology.