No one is sufficiently armed against the powerful; but if a wicked adviser joins them, nothing can withstand such a combination of violence and unscrupulousness. An eagle carried a tortoise aloft, who had hidden her body in her horny abode, and in her concealment could not, while thus sheltered, be injured in any way. A crow came through the air, and flying near, exclaimed: "You really have carried off a rich prize in your talons; but if I don't instruct you what you must do, in vain will you tire yourself with the heavy weight." A share being promised her, she persuades the eagle to dash the hard shell from the lofty stars upon a rock, that, it being broken to pieces, she may easily feed upon the meat. Induced by her words, the eagle attends to her suggestion, and at the same time gives a large share of the banquet to her instructress. 
Thus she who had been protected by the bounty of nature, being an unequal match for the two, perished by an unhappy fate. 