群鼠会议 拉封登着，江铭辉译
从前有只叫罗迪拉德的猫，造成了老鼠的大浩劫，很难找出有一只老鼠没有受过牠的蹂躏，害怕的留在鼠洞。节制平常的食物，过着半饱的日子。老鼠迷信认为罗迪拉德不是猫，简直是魔鬼的化身。
图：群鼠召开会议，商讨由谁将响铃挂在恶猫的伯脖子上。
有一天，这只可怕的魔鬼猫出门去会牠的情妇，继续牠的寻春乐，未被吃掉的老鼠立刻在老鼠葬身所在地召开会议，讨论的重点是如何避开即将面临的死亡命运。会议一开始，族里一只精明的长老，提出很好构想，牠提议立刻且不宜迟地在要命的恶猫脖子挂上响铃。这样，只要牠一展开狩猎行动，众老鼠在小心注意铃声下，就可安全躲在地洞里。
事实上长老也认为除了这个方法外，再没有别的方法了。但是群鼠和长老立刻后悔了，可是牠们实在也想不出更好的方法。事实上，如果这个办法可行的话，牠们早已想出来了并且去作了。无疑地，这件事情要作得漂亮，在于是否有老鼠肯去挂铃。可是所有老鼠，一只接一只的说：「我不去，我不是如此的大笨蛋。」大家在这个议题，争到筋疲力尽，没有结果，宣布散会。
我曾经看过许多会议，有些是值得推崇的会议，参加的人也是德高望重，且作出如此明智的提案，但却过分拘泥细节，而无结果。提案或反对时，到处充满有智慧的专家、顾问，但要真正执行的人，却很难找到。
译者评论
许多会议，开会时大家都是专家、顾问，七嘴八舌喜欢发表不切实际的方法，但执行起来，却困难重重。本寓言描述权威人士提出看起来很漂亮的提案，但执行起来既危险又不可能成功。
The Council Held By The Rats 原著
Old Rodilard,[注] a certain cat,
Such havoc of the rats had made,
It was difficult to find a rat
With nature's debt unpaid.
The few that did remain,
To leave their holes afraid,
From usual food abstain,
Not eating half their fill.
And wonder no one will
That one who made of rats his revel,
With rats passed not for cat, but devil.
Now, on a day, this dread rat-eater,
Who had a wife, went out to meet her;
And while he held his caterwauling,
The unkilled rats, their chapter calling,
Discussed the point, in grave debate,
How they might shun impending fate.
Their dean, a prudent rat,
Thought best, and better soon than late,
To bell the fatal cat;
That, when he took his hunting round,
The rats, well cautioned by the sound,
Might hide in safety under ground;
Indeed he knew no other means.
And all the rest
At once confessed
Their minds were with the dean's.
No better plan, they all believed,
Could possibly have been conceived,
No doubt the thing would work right well,
If any one would hang the bell.
But, one by one, said every rat,
"I'm not so big a fool as that."
The plan, knocked up in this respect,
The council closed without effect.
And many a council I have seen,
Or reverend chapter with its dean,
That, thus resolving wisely,
Fell through like this precisely.
To argue or refute
Wise counsellors abound;
The man to execute
Is harder to be found
注：Rodilard —The name no doubt taken from the famous cat Rodilardus (bacon-gnawer), in Rabelais, Pantagruel, 4, ch. 67.