Everything about The Dog In The Manger totally explained
The Dog in the Manger is a
fable attributed to
Aesop, concerning a
dog who one afternoon lay down to sleep in the
manger. On being awoken, he ferociously kept the
cattle in the farm from eating the hay on which he chose to sleep, even though he was unable to eat it himself, leading an
ox to mutter the
moral of the fable:
People often begrudge others what they can't enjoy themselves.
The phrase is
proverbial, referring to people who prevent others from having something that they themselves have no use for. A typical example is the child who discards a toy — until a sibling tries to play with it. Then the first child becomes possessive about something they no longer wanted.
A twist on the story was used by
Charles Schulz in a
Peanuts strip, in which
Lucy acquires a baseball card of
Charlie Brown's favorite player, and she refuses to give it to him. After he leaves disconsolately, she decides she doesn't really like the card that well, and throws it away.
In Spanish, the story is called
El Perro del Hortelano, or
The Vegetable Gardener's Dog.
The metaphor is also attributed to
Jesus in
The Gospel of Thomas by comparing the dog with the
Pharisees.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Dog In The Manger'.
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