how long have people been telling fables

People have been telling fables for thousands of years. The origins of fables are lost in the mists of time but appear independently in ancient Indian and Mediterranean cultures, with some of the earliest recorded fables coming from ancient Greece around the 6th century BCE attributed to Aesop, a legendary storyteller. Oral tradition of fables likely predates written records by many centuries, possibly going back to ancient civilizations such as Sumer and Akkad in the third millennium BCE. Fables have been used throughout history to educate and convey moral lessons across numerous different cultures worldwide.