What is the moral of the tale of peter rabbit?

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a moral of compliance. Peter's mother warns her four children, in her absence, not to do something. The warning comes with a possible dire consequence for disobedience: death.

Peter ignores his mother's warning, and, as a consequence, a good part of the tale goes into telling us Peter's struggle to escape death. The author explains Peter's struggle is a nightmare.

He escapes death with the help of others and chance happenings. Although he does escape with his life, he has lost all his possessions and has fallen unwell as a result, and ends up in a place every child detests: bed; where, presumably, he lies in solitude to relive again and again the nightmare he has just experienced. The good children, having obeyed their mother's warning, are rewarded with a wonderful supper!

However, if you could be so kind as to lend me your ears, there is another angle I might pursue.

The moral of noncompliance is confidence. With The Tale of Peter Rabbit being read and put aside, I have concluded Peter has won something of great importance.

He has learned, first, authority is not absolute. He was told death was a very real possibility if he disobeyed a power figure's warnings. He disobeyed and lived! True, he paid dearly for his near-death experience. Can you imagine, comparatively, the sufferings and hardships of the first explorers into the Antarctic or future ones to distant planets? Or investors in the stock market in a down economy? Many call them fools!

Second, Peter has learned with the help of others and a little luck, anything is possible. Peter begins, in the author's Word, underneath: that suggests living in darkness. With Peter's newfound knowledge, he now exists in the bright sunshine. (Plato's cave analogy) The good children, in contrast, have gained little but a momentary pleasure.