The Fox and the Chicken
Once, a fox stole a chicken from a peasant. She brought it to her den, plucked it, but didn’t feel like eating it right away. "It’s already evening," thought the fox, "I’m very tired after the day. I’ll have a proper feast tomorrow, but for now, I’ll get a good night’s sleep." She placed the chicken under her head as a pillow and lay down.She tossed and turned but couldn’t fall asleep! Then she got up again, felt the chicken, and said:
"This pillow is too soft—I can’t sleep! Perhaps I’d better eat the fattiest parts, then it’ll be firmer."
And so she did: she ate almost all the meat from the sides and a bit from the back, then lay down again. But this time, too, she couldn’t fall asleep: the pillow now seemed too hard. So the fox got up once more and said:
"Now I’ll fix my mistake: I’ll eat less from the fatty parts and more from the lean ones."
She ate all the meat that remained on the sides and back and closed her eyes again.
But even the third time, sleep wouldn’t come. Then the fox thought, "Before, I didn’t even have a pillow, yet I always slept like a log until sunrise!"
So she ate the wings and legs and, feeling full, lay down right on the chicken bones. She fell asleep immediately and slept until morning. And only in the morning did she realize: it wasn’t the pillow that kept her from sleeping—it was the chicken!
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