The Fox and the Wolf in the Well
Long ago, deep in a lush forest where cool waters whispered, there lived the Cunning Fox. Seeking his sustenance in the pitch darkness of the night, the Fox, through sheer carelessness, tumbled into the town's old stone well. In the clear water at the damp bottom of the well, he took the shimmering reflection of the full moon for a dazzling, enormous wheel of cheese. Yet when he noticed that sweet illusion, he understood with sorrow that he could never climb the high stone walls. Luckily, at the ends of the ropes wound round the windlass over the mouth of the well, two wooden buckets swung in balance. With the first light of morning, a guileless wolf who wanted to fill his belly in the forest came up to the edge of the well.
"What are you doing down there, my friend?" called the Wolf, his booming voice humming like a beehive against the narrow stones of the well. The Cunning Fox wished to seize this matchless chance at once, and set a thoroughly innocent smile upon his face. "There is a feast of delicious cheese down here; I cannot bear to leave such a rare flavour and climb back up," he replied. The Wolf, blind with hunger, swallowed the bait without a second thought when he heard those sweet, mouth-watering words. "And how can I come down beside you to that magnificent table?" the Wolf asked with great excitement. With a shrewd air the Fox said, "Get into the empty bucket up there, and let it lower you safely to the very heart of the delicacy."
Without the slightest hesitation the Wolf settled into the wooden bucket at the mouth of the well and let himself drop into the depths. As the bucket was drawn swiftly down by the heavy Wolf's weight, the lower bucket that carried the Fox began to glide upward. When the two buckets met exactly halfway down the well, the Wolf stared at the Fox with a look of deep bewilderment. With mocking cheer the Fox said, "Such is the order of the world, my friend: as one goes down, the other goes up." The Fox, restored to light and freedom, leapt from the bucket and ran merrily over the bright green meadows. The heedless Wolf, meanwhile, was left all alone at the bottom of the dark well with the deceitful reflection of the full moon. Those who yield to their greed and act without prudence can never escape becoming prey to the cunning of others. He who falls by his own fault does not cry.