The Fox and the Hens

The Fox and the Hens (version one)

One day, a clever fox tunneled his way into the hen house and caught all the hens by surprise. He smiled wickedly, for he had positioned himself in front of the door and they had nowhere to run to. As he readied himself for his attack, the head hen spoke:

“Fox, wait. If you eat us now, that will be it. One meal, and then in a day or two you will be hungry again. However, if you spare our lives, each of us hens will produce two eggs every morning instead of one. You’ll get one egg and the farmer will get the other, and we can continue to live peacefully.”

The fox, seeing an opportunity, agreed. From that point on, the fox visited the henhouse every morning before the farmer was awake and ate one egg from each hen. Months passed in this way, and the hens began to like the fox, who was pleasant company and told many scandalous and interesting stories of the forest as he ate his eggs.

Finally, winter came upon the farm and the farmer’s supplies dwindled. The farmer began to ration the chicken feed, and the hens found it more and more difficult to produce two eggs by each morning. Then one day no eggs would come at all.

When the fox came that morning and saw there were no eggs, he gobbled up the hens one by one. At last, only the head hen remained.

“I thought we had become friends!” she cried out.

The fox smiled wickedly as he approached her and said, “never trust a friendship based on bribery.”


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The Fox and the Hens (version two)

One day, a clever fox tunneled his way into the hen house and caught all the hens by surprise. He smiled wickedly, for he had positioned himself in front of the door and they had nowhere to run to. As he readied himself for his attack, the head hen spoke:

“Fox, wait. If you eat us now, that will be it. One meal, and then in a day or two you will be hungry again. However, if you spare our lives, each of us hens will produce two eggs every morning instead of one. You’ll get one egg and the farmer will get the other, and we can continue to live peacefully.”

The fox, seeing an opportunity, agreed. From that point on, the fox visited the henhouse every morning before the farmer was awake and ate one egg from each hen. Months passed in this way, and for the first time the fox had food every day.

As time passed, the fox grew slower and fatter. His appetite increased, and he began to eat both the eggs every morning to satisfy his desire, leaving none for the farmer. One winter morning, the fox came to the henhouse and found it empty. The farmer, thinking his hens could no longer lay eggs, had slaughtered them the day before and gone to market to sell the meat.

The hungry fox left the henhouse in search of food, but he had become too fat and slow to catch any game. With winter growing colder and game even scarcer, the fox soon starved.


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The Fox and the Hens (version three)

One day, a clever fox tunneled his way into the hen house and caught all the hens by surprise. He smiled wickedly, for he had positioned himself in front of the door and they had nowhere to run to. As he readied himself for his attack, the head hen spoke:

“Fox, wait. If you eat us now, that will be it. One meal, and then in a day or two you will be hungry again. However, if you spare our lives, each of us hens will produce two eggs every morning instead of one. You’ll get one egg and the farmer will get the other, and we can continue to live peacefully.”

The fox, seeing an opportunity, agreed. The next morning he came through the tunnel, expecting a tasty meal of eggs. What he found instead was the farmer's dog guarding the exit of the tunnel.

“I have been betrayed,” screamed the fox as the dog’s teeth closed around his neck.

To which the head hen replied, “never trust a bargain brokered with threats.”