Chapter 129
It was a stormy day, and the snow was falling fast when a goatherd drove his goats, all covered with white flakes, into a deserted cave for shelter. There he discovered that a herd of wild goats, more numerous and larger than his own, had already taken refuge. The goatherd was so struck by the size and looks of these goats, much more beautiful than his own, that he decided to keep them as well and left his own goats to look after themselves. In fact, he took the branches that he had brought for his own goats and gave them to the wild ones to browse on. When the weather cleared up, however, he found that his own goats had perished from hunger, while the wild goats had run off into the hills and woods. So the goatherd returned to his village, where his neighbors mocked him for having failed to capture the wild goats and for having lost his own in the bargain.
Whoever neglects old friends for the sake of dubious new, deserves the loneliness on losing both.
