The Farmer & the Stork

from the ancient Greek collection of short stories Aesop’s Fables

Difficult words:
Crane – Tran
Dismal – Dyster, hemsk, sorglig
To thieve – To steal (att stjäla)

A Stork of a very simple

and trusting nature had
been asked by a gay party of
Cranes to visit a field that
had been newly planted. But
the party ended dismally
with all the birds entangled
in the meshes of the Farmer's net.

The Stork begged the Farmer to spare him.

"Please let me go," he pleaded. "I belong to

the Stork family who you know are honest and
birds of good character. Besides, I did not know
the Cranes were going to steal."

"You may be a very good bird," answered the

Farmer, "but I caught you with the thieving
Cranes and you will have to share the same
punishment with them."
Answer the questions:

1) The word “gay” appears in the story. Today, the word “gay” has a new
meaning, but in this story, they use the old meaning of the word “gay”. What
did it mean before?

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2) Why did the stork think it was better than the cranes?

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3) The farmer mentioned a “punishment”. What do you think the

punishment was?

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4) What is the message of the story? What can you learn from it?

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5) Did you like/dislike the story? Why? Why not?

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6) In real life, this kind of thing happens too. For instance, your friends
might tell you that a lesson has been cancelled, so you leave the school
together with them, only to find out that they were wrong and you missed
the lesson. Has anything like this happened to you? Think about the stork.
Have you ever been in a situation like this where you made a mistake by
following the crowd?

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