<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article relies too much on references to primary sources . Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . (April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article relies too much on references to primary sources . Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . (April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> "The Tortoise and the Hare" is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index . The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations . It is itself a variant of a common folktale theme in which ingenuity and trickery (rather than doggedness) are employed to overcome a stronger opponent . </P> <P> The story concerns a Hare who ridicules a slow - moving Tortoise . Tired of the Hare's arrogant behavior, the Tortoise challenges him to a race . The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, takes a nap midway through the race . When the Hare awakes however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him . The later version of the story in La Fontaine's Fables (VI. 10), while more long - winded, differs hardly at all from Aesop's . </P>

Who wrote the story of the tortoise and the hare