<P> The fable concerns a group of mice who debate plans to nullify the threat of a marauding cat . One of them proposes placing a bell around its neck, so that they are warned of its approach . The plan is applauded by the others, until one mouse asks who will volunteer to place the bell on the cat . All of them make excuses . The story is used to teach the wisdom of evaluating a plan on not only how desirable the outcome would be but also how it can be executed . It provides a moral lesson about the fundamental difference between ideas and their feasibility, and how this affects the value of a given plan . </P> <P> The story gives rise to the idiom to bell the cat, which means to attempt, or agree to perform, an impossibly difficult task . Historically it was the basis of the nickname given the Scottish nobleman Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus . In 1482, at a meeting of nobles who wanted to depose and hang James III's favourite, Robert Cochrane, Lord Gray remarked, Tis well said, but wha daur bell the cat? The challenge was accepted and successfully accomplished by the Earl of Angus . In recognition of this, he was always known afterwards as Archie Bell - the - cat . </P> <P> The first English collection to attribute the fable to Aesop was John Ogilby's of 1687; in this there is a fine woodcut (by Francis Barlow), followed by a 10 - line verse synopsis by Aphra Behn with the punning conclusion: </P> <P> Good council's easily given, but the effect Oft renders it uneasy to transact . </P>

Who is to bell the cat completing story