# The Fox and the Stork

_Aesop_ · 1 min read · ages 4-9

A fox invites a stork to dinner and serves soup in a wide, shallow dish, lapping up every drop while she can only tap the bottom with her bill. Later she invites him to dinner in turn, serving it in a tall, narrow jug: however he turns it, he cannot reach a drop, and he sits there hungry while she finishes her dinner.

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A fox once invited a stork to dinner. The only thing he served was soup, and he poured it into a wide, shallow dish.

The fox lapped it up happily and finished every drop. The stork could only tap the bottom of the dish with the tip of her long bill, and try as she might, she could not get a single mouthful. The fox watched her struggle and found it very funny.

The stork said nothing about it. But a little while later she invited the fox to dinner in turn.

She served the meal in a tall jug with a long, narrow neck. Her bill slid inside easily, and she ate her fill. The fox could only push his nose into the opening and lick the outside of the jug. However he turned it, he could not reach a drop, and he sat there hungry while she finished her dinner.

**Moral:** A trick you play on someone teaches them how to play it on you.

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- Read online: https://talerie.com/en/tales/the-fox-and-the-stork
- Source: Aesop's Fables: a new translation, tr. V. S. Vernon Jones (1912) (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11339)
- Public-domain basis: Talerie contemporary retelling (CC0 2026), based on: Aesop's Fables: a new translation, tr. V. S. Vernon Jones (1912) — translation: author died 564 BC (+70 passed); translator V. S. Vernon Jones died 1955 (+70 passed)
- License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)