Once upon a time there was a cunning fox, like any other foxes are. The fox had searched for food all night long, but didn't find any food anywhere and it was very hungry. When it was daylight, the fox came to the roadside and lay down under a bush, thinking about what to do to find some food. As it lay down with its nose on its paws, the fox smelled some fish.
Then, the fox raised its head and looked along the road, down the valley and saw a cart drawn by some oxen. "Good", the fox said. "There is the food I have been waiting for." And the fox got out of the bush and lay down in the middle of the road, as if he were dead. When the cart approached, the peasant who was driving the cart saw the fox and, thinking that it was really dead, called the oxen to stop.. When the cart stopped, the peasant came to the fox, watched it closely and, as the fox didn't breathe, he said:"Oh, how did this fox die right here in the middle of the road? Wow! I will make a nice vest for my wife out of the fox's fur." And, as he said this, he caught the fox by its head, pulled it into the cart, above the fish, and called his oxen to go. The peasant walked along his oxen and impelled them to move faster, so he could get home faster and skin the fox.
But, after the cart started moving, the fox started to push some fish out of the cart. After he pushed a lot of fish out of the cart, the fox jumped off, gathered the fish and went back to his burrow and started to eat the fish. The fox was very hungry!
Just as the fox was eating the fish, the bear came for a visit. "Bone appetite, fox!" he said. "Wow! you have a lot of fish. Please give me some, too, for I am very hungry for fish."
"Forget about it!" said the fox. "I haven't worked so hard to catch fish to feed others. If you're so hungry for fish, go put your tail into the pond, as I did, and you will have plenty of fish to eat."
"Please teach me how to fish", the bear said, "because I don't know how to catch fish."
Then, the fox grinned and said: "Well, bear dear, don't you know that hunger teaches you to fish? Listen: do you want to eat fish? Then, tonight, go to the fish pond at the edge of the forest, put your tails in the water and stand still and wait till dawn; then pull your tail hard towards the shore and you'll catch a lot of fish, maybe twice or three times as much as I did."
The bear went to the pond, put all his tail into the water and waited standing very still. That night was a very cold night and the water of the pond froze stiff and the bear's tail got caught in the ice as in a clipper. After a while, the bear could no longer stand the pain in his tail and the cold, so he pulled his tail hard. And, instead of catching fish, the poor bear was left without his tail. He was VERY angry with the fox for the way the fox had tricked him and for the pain caused. So, he went to search for the fox and kill it.
But the cunning fox got out of its burrow and hid in a nearby hollow tree. And, when he saw the tailless bear approaching, he called out: "Hey, chum! What has happened? Did the fish eat your tail or were you so greedy that you didn't want to leave fish in the pond?"
Hearing the fox's sarcasm, the bear got even angrier. He rushed to the hollow tree to catch the fox. But the hollow was too narrow and the bear did not fit in. Then, he took a hooked branch and tried to pull the fox out so that he could kill it. But, when the bear caught the leg of the fox, the fox yelled: "You can pull it, you fool, I don't care, because you are pulling the tree." And when the bear hung the hooked branch on the tree, the fox yelled: "Ouch, chum! Don't pull because you are breaking my leg!"
The bear fought in vain to pull the fox out of its hollow.
So, this is the way the bear was tricked by the fox and lost his tail.
The story was translated into English by prof. Daniela Buda and illustrated by the students from pre-school grades C and D from Scoala Gimnaziala "Vasile Alecsandri" Baia Mare, coordinated by their teachers: Marcela Zaplac, Adina Cosma, Laura Cont and Daniela Buda
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