The Oxen and the Beam

The Oxen and the Beam. There was a beam being hauled in a cart, and it was criticizing the oxen for being too slow. "Hurry up, you lazy creatures! You're carrying a light load." The oxen replied, "Go ahead and make fun of us! Ignorant roofbeam, you don't even know what punishment awaits you. We will soon be able to put down our load; you, on the other hand, will have to carry your load until you snap." The fable warns everybody not to mock other people's troubles when you might be exposed to even greater troubles yourself.

Boves et Trabs. Trabs, quae curru vehebatur, Boves ut lentulos increpabat, dicens, "Currite, pigri; onus enim leve portatis." Cui Boves "Irrides nos," responderunt, "ignara, quae te poena maneat. Onus hoc nos cito deponemus; tuum autem tu, quoad rumparis, sustinere cogeris." Indoluit Trabs nec amplius Boves conviciis lacessere ausa est. Morale. Haec fabula quemlibet monet ne aliorum insultet calamitatibus, cum ipse possit maioribus subiacere.

Notes. This is Abstemius 42. As usual with Abstemius, it is not found in Perry's inventory. With many types of modern-day building construction, we don't think about the wooden beams that used to bear the weight in old buildings - but bear the weight they did, as the oxen remind the beam in this fable.