<P> The oldest Greek versions of the fable are numbered 51 in the Perry Index . A snake dwells in a hole at the farmer's threshold and is tolerated until his son accidentally steps on it and is stung to death . The enraged father then chases the snake with an axe and cuts off its tail . When he later attempts to make his peace with the snake, it refuses on the grounds that neither of them will ever forget their mutual injuries . Substantially the same story appears in the Neo-Latin poems by Hieronymus Osius and Pantaleon Candidus . </P> <P> However, an alternative version of the story is found in Mediaeval European sources that is separately numbered 573 in the Perry Index . Here the snake feeds on food left by the man, or the left - overs from his table, and as a consequence the man grows rich . Eventually he decides to kill the snake before it withdraw its favours, but the snake survives the attack and kills the man's son (or flocks) in revenge . The man then sues for peace but the snake replies that neither can forgive the other while evidences of former grievances remain . </P> <P> In Marie de France's verse account at the close of the 12th century, the snake asks the farmer for a daily ration of milk and promises him enrichment . He is later persuaded by his wife to kill it and waits by its hole with an axe but only cleaves the stone at its entrance . The snake kills the man's sheep in revenge and when he asks for pardon tells him that he can no longer be trusted . The scar in the rock will always be a reminder of his bad faith . The moral on which Marie ends is never to take a woman's advice . The broad outlines remain the same in the story that appears in the Gesta Romanorum a century later . A knight in debt makes a bargain with a serpent and is similarly enriched . When he is persuaded to treachery by his wife, the serpent kills his child and he is reduced to poverty . It is interpreted there as an allegory of sin and false repentance . </P> <P> These latter versions may have been influenced by the similar story that was also added to the Indian Panchatantra at the end of the 12th century . A farmer sees a snake emerge from a mound in his field and brings it food as an offering . In return it leaves a gold coin in the bowl . In a development reminiscent of the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, the man's son believes he will find a treasure horde in the snake's mound and tries to kill it, but loses his life instead . When the man comes to apologise, the snake rejects his peace making and declares that he is only motivated by greed . </P>

The story of a farmer and a snake