One good turn deserves another

  • This everyday expression means that if someone helps you, you should help them when the opportunity arises.
  • The expression comes from one of Aesop's Fables, ‘The Ant and the Dove’. Aesop lived between c. 620-560 BCE.

Aesop’s Fable ‘The Ant and the Dove’

  • An Ant went to the river bank to quench its thirst. Unfortunately, it fell in and started to drown.
  • A Dove in a tree nearby, saw the Ant struggling in the water, and plucking a leaf, let it drop into the stream beside the Ant.
  • The Ant climbed up onto the leaf, which floated into the bank, and the Ant was saved.
  • Meanwhile, a birdcatcher arrived, and seeing the Dove, started to lay a trap of lime twigs below the tree.
  • The Ant, seeing the birdcatcher’s intention, promptly stung his foot, making the birdcatcher shout in pain, and causing the Dove to fly away to safety.
  • The moral is that one good turn deserves another.

 

Everyday Expressions that come from Aesop
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