The Stag in the Ox-Stall

A fable retold from Aesop

This is one of Aesop's fables, short stories with lessons told for thousands of years. In this story, a stag thinks he is safe when servants do not see him, but the master looks more carefully than anyone else. The fable teaches that the owner of something will notice what others miss. Aesop may have lived in ancient Greece, but no one knows for sure. His fables are still told today because they show truths about how people and animals act.

Band

Purple · Pre-readers and first readers, about 4 to 5

Length

short · about 385 words in 5 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Favourite Fables in Prose and Verse, Harrison Weir · Project Gutenberg

First published

see the About page in the reader

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (6 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.