- Year Published: 1867
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: Greece
- Source: Aesop (1867) Aesop's Fables
- Flesch–Kincaid Level: 4.0
- Word Count: 82
Aesop, . (1867). “The Flies and the Honeypot”. Aesop's Fables (Lit2Go Edition). Retrieved November 24, 2014, from
Aesop, . "“The Flies and the Honeypot”." Aesop's Fables. Lit2Go Edition. 1867. Web. <>. November 24, 2014.
Aesop, "“The Flies and the Honeypot”," Aesop's Fables, Lit2Go Edition, (1867), accessed November 24, 2014,.
A NUMBER of Flies were attracted to a jar of honey which had been overturned in a housekeeper’s room, and placing their feet in it, ate greedily. Their feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they could not use their wings, nor release themselves, and were suffocated. Just as they were expiring, they exclaimed, “O foolish creatures that we are, for the sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves.”
Pleasure bought with pains, hurts.