The Bear and the Gardener in this case keeping the flies off a friend, and the ultimate good of safeguarding his welfare. The story gained currency in England from the 18th century on through translations or imitations of La Fontaine. One of its earliest appearances was in Robert Dodsley's "Select fables of Esop and other fabulists" (1764), where it is given the title "The Hermit and the Bear" and a milder ending. In this version a hermit has done the bear a good turn; later still this was identified with taking a thorn from its paw, drawing on the story of Androcles and the Lion.
The Snake in the Thorn Bush The Snake in the Thorn Bush The Snake in the Thorn Bush is a rare fable of Greek origin with a West Asian analogue. It is numbered 96 among Aesop's Fables in the Perry Index. In Greek sources, a snake entwined in a thorn hedge is swept away by a flood and mocked by a fox with the words 'A wicked ship, and worthy of its sailor!' The moral drawn is that the evil come to grief from the company they keep. The West Asian variant occurs in the story of Ahikar, where the sage reproaches his adopted nephew for