<P> The Ant and the Grasshopper, alternatively titled The Grasshopper and the Ant (or Ants), is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 373 in the Perry Index . The fable describes how a hungry grasshopper begs for food from an ant when winter comes and is refused . The situation sums up moral lessons about the virtues of hard work and planning for the future . </P> <P> Even in Classical times, however, the advice was mistrusted and an alternative story represented the ant's industry as mean and self - serving . Jean de la Fontaine's delicately ironical retelling in French later widened the debate to cover the themes of compassion and charity . Since the 18th century the grasshopper has been seen as the type of the artist and the question of the place of culture in society has also been included . Argument over the fable's ambivalent meaning has generally been conducted through adaptation or reinterpretation of the fable in literature, arts, and music . </P>

What is the moral of the story the ant and the cricket
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