The Wolf and the Shepherd

A wolf had long hung about a flock of sheep and had done them no harm. The shepherd, however, had his suspicions, and for a while was always on the lookout against him as an avowed enemy. But when the wolf continued for a long time following in the train of his flock without the least attempt to annoy them, he began to look upon him more as a friend than a foe. Having occasion to go into the city one day, he entrusted the sheep to his care.

The wolf no sooner saw his opportunity than he immediately fell upon the sheep and worried them. The shepherd, on his return, seeing his flock destroyed, exclaimed, "Fool that I am! Yet I deserved no less for trusting my sheep with a wolf!"

There is more danger from a pretended friend than from an open enemy.