Fox and Stork
A fox decided to play a joke upon a stork. In order to do this, he invited the bird to dinner in his den. When the stork arrived, the fox served a delicious soup in a flat dish.
“ Mmmm, this soup is so good!“
said the fox, lapping greedily from the flat dish, his nose very very close.
“ What do you think of it, my friend?“
“I don‘t know“
grumbled the stork, pecking vainly at the flat dish with her very long beak.
“ This dish is too flat, I can‘t eat anything! No soup in my mouth!“
This was just what the old fox wanted. He had upset the stork and made her look silly, and he found this very very funny. He finished the soup himself with a sly smile upon his face. The stork made one or two more efforts to peck up the soup but then gave up and went home.
A few days later, the stork thought it was time to get her own back on the fox. She invited the fox to come to dinner with her in her home by the water‘s edge. She too prepared soup for the meal. She served it in a jar which was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top.
“Let us begin“
said the stork, dipping her head into the jar and taking a long sip.
“ Mmmm, this is good! What do you think of it, my friend?“
“I don‘t know“
grumbled the fox, trying in vain to get his head into the mouth of the jug.
“ I can not reach the soup!“
“Oh, what a shame“
said the stork.
The stork said nothing else but finished the soup while the fox looked on angrily. In the end the fox went home in a very bad mood. The tables had been turned on him but for some reason he didn‘t think it was funny.
Something which seems funny when it happens to someone else may not seem so funny when it happens to us.
