Aesop fable

The Lion and the Mouse

A very short fable about how a tiny mouse was able to help a great lion.

The Lion was sleeping. A Mouse ran across his body. He woke up and caught her.

A mouse runs across a sleeping lion
The lion catches the mouse in his paw

The Mouse began to beg him to let her go. She said:

“If you let me go, I will do you a kindness too.”

The Lion laughed because the Mouse promised to do him a kindness, but he let her go.

The lion laughs while holding the mouse on his paw

Later, hunters caught the Lion and tied him to a tree with a rope.

Hunters tie the lion to a tree with rope

The Mouse heard the Lion roar.

The mouse hears the lion roaring in the forest

She ran to him, gnawed through the rope, and said:

The mouse gnaws the rope and saves the lion

“Remember how you laughed and did not think I could do you a kindness? Now you see: even a mouse can do good.”