The grasshopper sang all summer — and had nothing when winter came

All summer long, while the ant worked every day carrying grain from the field to the storehouse, the grasshopper sat on a blade of grass and played his fiddle. 'Come rest, come dance!' he called to the ant. 'There is plenty of time before winter.' The ant did not answer. He carried another grain.

When winter came, the ant stayed warm in his burrow, well-fed on the grain he had stored. The grasshopper, who had stored nothing, shivered in the cold. He went to the ant's door and begged for a few grains to survive. The ant looked at him. 'What did you do all summer?' 'I sang,' said the grasshopper. 'You sang?' said the ant. 'Then dance through the winter.'

The fable is one of Aesop's most widely known, adapted by La Fontaine and referenced in countless works from Renaissance emblems to modern business writing. The grasshopper's error is the most common strategic failure in history: he treated a favourable present as a permanent condition. Because he had enough today, he assumed he would have enough tomorrow — and made no provision for the turning of the cycle.