The Dog and the Shadow

A DOG, crossing a bridge over a stream with a piece of flesh¹ in
his mouth, saw his own shadow in the water and took it for that
of another Dog, with a piece of meat double his own in size.  He
immediately let go of his own, and fiercely² attacked the other
Dog to get his larger piece from him.  He thus lost both:  that
which he grasped at in the water, because it was a shadow; and
his own, because the stream swept it away.