English Original
A dog, carrying a piece of meat in his mouth, was on his way home. To cross a running brook, he had to walk over a narrow plank. As he did so, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water below.
Mistaking it for another dog with another piece of meat, he decided to take that one too. He snapped at the shadow in the water. But as he opened his mouth, his own piece of meat fell out, dropped into the brook, and was lost forever.
Moral: Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
中文翻译
一只狗叼着一块肉，正走在回家的路上。为了穿过一条流淌的小溪，他必须走过一块狭窄的木板。过河时，他低头一看，在水中看到了自己的倒影。
他误以为那是另一只叼着肉的狗，便决定把那一块也夺过来。他朝水中的影子猛咬过去。然而，就在他张嘴的瞬间，他自己的那块肉掉了出来，落入溪中，永远地失去了。
寓意： 切莫追逐幻影，而丢失了实实在在的东西。