Srila Prabhupada relates the Aesop Fable about a dog who saw his reflection in the water. He called the story “very instructive.” In the reflection the dog saw this “other” dog carrying food in its mouth. So, in trying to get that food, the dog lost what was actually in its mouth. Srila Prabhupada related the decline of the Roman and British empires to the greed the dog experiences in trying to take the ‘other’ dog’s food. (From a lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.2 in Rome on 26 May, 1974.