Thoughts

A man dug a pit in the forest and covered it with brushwood, hoping to catch some animal. A fox was running through the forest. She was so busy looking up at the treetops that—plop!—she fell into the pit.

A crane was flying by. He landed to search for food, but his legs got tangled in the brushwood. As he struggled to free himself—plop!—he fell into the pit too. Both the fox and the crane were in trouble. They didn’t know what to do or how to get out of the pit.

The fox dashed back and forth, raising a cloud of dust in the pit, while the crane tucked one leg under him, stood still, and kept pecking at the ground in front of him. Both were thinking of a way to escape their predicament. The fox ran around and around, then said:
— I have a thousand, a thousand, a thousand thoughts!

The crane pecked and pecked, then said:
— And I have only one thought!
And so it went—the fox running and the crane pecking.
"What a fool this crane is!" thought the fox. "Why does he keep pecking at the ground? Doesn’t he know the earth is thick, and he’ll never peck through it?"

But she kept circling the pit, saying:
— I have a thousand, a thousand, a thousand thoughts!
And the crane kept pecking at the ground, saying:
— And I have only one thought!

The man came to check if anyone had fallen into his trap. When the fox heard someone approaching, she began darting around even more frantically, repeating:
— I have a thousand, a thousand, a thousand thoughts!

But the crane fell completely silent and stopped pecking. The fox looked over and saw that he had collapsed, his legs stretched out, and he wasn’t breathing. He had died of fright, poor thing!

The man lifted the brushwood and saw that a fox and a crane had fallen into the pit. The fox was scurrying about, while the crane lay motionless.
— Ah, you wicked fox! the man said. You’ve killed such a fine bird!

He pulled the crane out by its legs and felt it—it was still warm. He scolded the fox even more harshly. Meanwhile, the fox kept running around the pit, not knowing which of her thousand, thousand, thousand thoughts to act on.
— Just you wait! the man said. I’ll teach you a lesson for killing my crane!
He placed the bird by the pit and turned back to the fox.

As soon as he turned away, the crane spread its wings, let out a cry, and said:
— I had only one thought!
And off it flew, out of sight. But the fox, with her thousand, thousand, thousand thoughts, ended up as a collar on a fur coat.

More fairy tales

• The Bear and the Fox
• The Fox Midwife
• The Bird Language
• The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats
• Ivan the Fool