The Thieves and the Ass by Jean de La Fontaine

Two thieves steal a donkey and quarrel over whether to sell it. Their argument turns into a fight, allowing a third thief to seize the opportunity and ride away with the ass. The fable interprets the ass as a poor province or fallen nation, while the thieves represent princes eager for spoils and plunder. When such powers wage war over a country, another power may end their dispute by taking the prize for itself.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Political Allegory, Satire · 211 words

First lines

Two thieves, pursuing their profession, / Had of a donkey got possession, / Whereon a strife arose, / Which went from words to blows. / The question was, to sell, or not to sell; / But while our sturdy champions fought it well, / Another thief, who chanced to pass, / With ready wit rode off the ass.

This ass is, by interpretation, / Some province poor, or prostrate nation. / The thieves are princes this and that, / On spoils and plunder prone to fat, -- / As those of Austria, Turkey, Hungary. / (Instead of two, I've quoted three -- / Enough of such commodity.) / These powers engaged in war all, / Some fourth thief stops the quarrel, / According all to one key, / By riding off the donkey.[1]

• Open reader

Similar titles

• The Grasshopper And The Ant by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Lion And The Ass Hunting by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Cat Metamorphosed Into A Woman by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Wolf Accusing The Fox Before The Monkey by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Raven And The Fox by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Bat And The Two Weasels by Jean De La Fontaine

Genres

• Fable — The poem uses a brief animal-centered anecdote to convey a clear moral and political lesson, following the classical Aesopic fable tradition.
• Political Allegory — The ass explicitly represents a weak province or nation, while the thieves represent rival princes whose conflict enables another power to seize the contested territory.
• Satire — La Fontaine ridicules ambitious rulers and their predatory wars by portraying them as foolish thieves who lose their prize through greed and quarrelling.
• Verse Narrative — The work tells a complete, compact story in rhyming poetic lines rather than in prose.

Tags

fable · verse narrative · political allegory · moral tale · Aesopic tradition · seventeenth-century France · Europe · warfare · rival princes · territorial conflict · imperial ambition · plunder

What this Textopian page supports

The Thieves and the Ass is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Fable
• Author: Jean de La Fontaine
• Date: 1668 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Political Allegory, Satire, Verse Narrative, Moral Poetry
• Length: 211 words
• Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Thieves and the Ass by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

More by Jean de La Fontaine

• To Monseigneur the Dauphin (1668)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1668)
• The Raven and the Fox (1668)
• The Frog that Wished to be as Big as the Ox (1668)
• The Two Mules (1668)
• The Wolf and the Dog (1668)
• The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company with the Lion (1668)
• The Wallet (1668)
• All works by Jean de La Fontaine