The Ass in the Lion's Skin

Of the two Greek versions of this story, the one catalogued as number 188 in the Perry Index concerns an ass that puts on a lion's skin, and amuses himself by terrifying all the foolish animals.

Here the ass's master puts the lion's skin over his beast, and turns it loose to feed in the grain fields during his travels.

[7] A common European variant on this theme appears in the Ladino Sephardic proverb, asno callado, por sabio contado: "a silent ass is considered wise.

[10][11] In Mandarin Chinese it is "羊質虎皮" (pronunciation:yang(2) zhi(4) hu(3) pi(2)), "a goat in a tiger's skin."

[12] "The Ass in the Lion's Skin" was one of the several Aesop's fables put to use by American political cartoonist Thomas Nast, when it was rumoured in 1874 that Republican president Ulysses S. Grant intended to stand for election for an unprecedented third term in 1876.

At the same time, there was a false report that animals had escaped from the Central Park Zoo, and were roaming the streets of New York.

Titled "Third Term Panic", it depicts a donkey in a lion's skin, labelled "Caesarism", and scattering other animals that stand for various interests.