<P> The Two Pots is one of Aesop's Fables and numbered 378 in the Perry Index . The fable may stem from proverbial sources . </P> <P> There is a short Greek version of the fable and a longer, more circumstantial late Latin poem by Avianus . It concerns two pots, one of earthenware and the other of metal, that are being swept along a river . While the metal pot is willing that they should journey together, the clay pot hopes it will keep its distance for' Whether the wave crashes me into you or you into me, in either case I will be the only victim' . The moral drawn is that equal partnership is best, and especially that the poor or powerless should avoid the company of the powerful . </P> <P> In this connection, there is a likeness between the story and a passage in the debated book of Ecclesiasticus that advises caution in such unequal relationships:' Have no fellowship with one that is richer than thyself . What agreement shall the earthen pot have with the kettle? For if they knock one against the other, it shall be broken' (13.2 - 3). Since this particular scripture is in Greek and dates from the 2nd century BCE, it is possible that the passage quoted and the fable are both based on a popular proverb . But there is also a connection with a later Talmudic proverb which underlines the no - win situation of the fable:' If a pot falls upon a stone, woe to the pot; if a stone falls upon a pot, woe to the pot; either way, woe to the pot' (Esther Rabbah, 7: 10). </P>

What is the moral of the two pots