Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists… (1692)
“ Where among a world of People, he law one Man arrest another upon an Action of Debt. The Debtor Pleaded Poverty; but if he would Compound for halfe, it should go hard but he'd make a Shift to Pick it up, he said. Well with all my Heart, says the Creditor, Lay down the Mony upon the Nail, and the Business is done: for a man had better Content himself with Halfe, then Lose All, And I reckon that Mony as good as lost, that a Man must go to Law for; Æsop upon this, went back and told his Master, that he had been at the Hall, and saw but one Man there ”
