The Weasel in the Granary by Jean de La Fontaine

A weasel, weakened by illness, squeezes through a hole into a farmer’s store of food. There she consumes lard and victuals until she becomes fat. After about a week, she hears a noise and tries to escape through the same opening, but her enlarged body cannot pass through it. Confused, she wonders why the hole has become so small. A rat explains that the opening is unchanged: she entered lean and must leave lean. The tale applies this lesson to many people who venture into similar places.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Moral Literature, Animal Tale · 368 words

First lines

A weasel through a hole contrived to squeeze, / (She was recovering from disease,) / Which led her to a farmer's hoard. / There lodged, her wasted form she cherish'd; / Heaven knows the lard and victuals stored / That by her gnawing perish'd! / Of which the consequence / Was sudden corpulence. / A week or so was past, / When having fully broken fast. / A noise she heard, and hurried / To find the hole by which she came, / And seem'd to find it not the same; / So round she ran, most sadly flurried; / And, coming back, thrust out her head, / Which, sticking there, she said, / 'This is the hole, there can't be blunder: / What makes it now so small, I wonder, / Where, but the other day, I pass'd with ease? ' / A rat her trouble sees, / And cries, 'But with an emptier belly; / You enter'd lean, and lean must sally. ' / What I have said to you / Has eke been said to not a few, / Who, in a vast variety of cases,[1] / Have ventured into such-like places.[2]

• Open reader

Similar titles

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• The Miser Who Had Lost His Treasure by Jean De La Fontaine
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Genres

• Fable — A brief animal-centered narrative that delivers a clear practical moral: those who enter a situation lean or modest must not expect to leave it burdened by excess.
• Moral Literature — The poem uses the weasel's predicament to condemn greed, overindulgence, and the consequences of acquiring more than one can reasonably retain.
• Animal Tale — A weasel and a rat act as speaking, reasoning characters whose behavior represents recognizable human faults and social types.
• Satire — The fable humorously ridicules acquisitive people, with the concluding lines and traditional commentary suggesting an application to corrupt or self-enriching officials.

Tags

French fable · verse narrative · animal fable · moral allegory · seventeenth-century France · farmer's food store · granary · weasel · rat · illness and recovery · hunger · gluttony

What this Textopian page supports

The Weasel in the Granary 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, Moral Literature, Animal Tale, Satire, Allegory
• Length: 368 words
• Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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• Work identity for The Weasel in the Granary by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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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