The Farmer and the Viper

One winter a farmer found a snake half-dead, stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a fatal wound.  "Oh," cried the farmer with his last breath, "I am rightly served for pitying so villainous a creature."  

This old story of "The Farmer and the Viper" is attributed to Aesop's Fables. Variations crop up in other times and places. Its moral is usually given as something like: "The greatest kindness is wasted upon the evil." As such it would seem to advise against following Jesus's admonition to "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you." Another lesson we might take away from it is: "Don't be surprised when things act according to their nature." Johnny Rivers captured this angle in a song that was popular when I was a kid, titled The Snake.

On the way to work one morning

down the path along side the lake

A tender hearted woman

saw a poor half-frozen snake

His pretty colored skin

had been all frosted with the dew

"Oh, well" she cried, "I'll take you in

and I'll take care of you."

Chorus:

Take me in tender woman

Take me in for heaven's sake

Take me in tender woman

Sighed the snake.

She wrapped him up all cozy

in a comforter of silk

and then laid him by the fireside

with some honey and some milk

She hurried home from work that night

and as soon as she arrived

She found that pretty snake she'd taken in

had been revived.

Chorus

She clutched him to her bosom;

"You're so beautiful," she cried,

"but if I hadn't brought you in

by now you might have died."

Well she stroked his pretty skin again

and then kissed him really tight,

but instead of saying thanks

the snake gave her a vicious bite.

Chorus

"I saved you!" cried that woman

"and you've bitten me but why?"

"you know your bite is poisonous

and now I'm gonna die."

"Ha, ha, shut up, silly woman."

said that reptile with a grin.

"You knew darn well I was a snake

before you took me in."

Chorus

Oh, you better take me in sighed the snake.