<P> In the original tale , a proud town mouse visits his cousin in the country . The country mouse offers the city mouse a meal of simple country cuisine , at which the visitor scoffs and invites the country mouse back to the city for a taste of the `` fine life '' and the two cousins dine like emperors . But their rich and delicious metropolitan feast is interrupted by a couple of dogs which force the rodent cousins to abandon their meal and scurry to safety . After this , the country mouse decides to return home , preferring security to opulence or , as the 13th - century preacher Odo of Cheriton phrased it , `` I 'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear '' . </P>
<P> In the original tale , a proud town mouse visits his cousin in the country . The country mouse offers the city mouse a meal of simple country cuisine , at which the visitor scoffs and invites the country mouse back to the city for a taste of the `` fine life '' and the two cousins dine like emperors . But their rich and delicious metropolitan feast is interrupted by a couple of dogs which force the rodent cousins to abandon their meal and scurry to safety . After this , the country mouse decides to return home , preferring security to opulence or , as the 13th - century preacher Odo of Cheriton phrased it , `` I 'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear '' . </P>
what is the moral of the story the city mouse and the country mouse
what is the moral of the story the city mouse and the country mouse
`` I 'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear ''
`` I 'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear ''