The Fox and the Grapes
Once upon a time a fox had been stalking mice and squirrels in a farm fields next to a vineyard. He had chased a few already that day and even one or two rabbits. But he had been unsuccessful so far.
The mid-summer afternoon was quite hot and the fox frustrated and hungry lay down in one of the ferrous terrace. Lying in the dirt he chanced to look up and saw dangling above him wine of ripe sweet grapes. Normally he would pay to them no attention at all. But on this day when it seems so little prey was about he considered them as it was the first time he had ever seen grapes.
“I have never liked eating plants”, he said to himself, “and it really seems undignified for a fox. We are proudest of creatures that stoop so low as to eat something which growth out of the ground like a common rabbit would. It seems undignified. But I'm awfully hot and tired today and terribly hungry as well.”
The fox spent some time debating the pros and cons with vegetarian diet. And remembered tasting grapes ones when he was young. They were sweet but his mother had caught him and scolded him for being a disgrace to a species. But in the end hunger won easily besides there were no other foxes around.
The fox first tried scaling the tree but without the claws like in the cat he failed. Next he picked up a long stick in his mouth and the hops of knocking the grapes down of the wine. But he couldn't quite see what he was doing and that the stick of that long wouldn't reach. All he got was a soar neck and jaw. Finally the fox determined that he would simply jump for it. Although he felt a bit weak with hunger and exhaustion and the mid-day hit he was confident in his athletic abilities. He backed away from a tree over which the grape wine hung so as to get running start and leapt towards the cluster of grapes. He felt short. Again and again the fox leapt toward his price only to again arrive at the ground bitter with disappointment. Finally exhausted the fox walked away from the grapes still hungry muttering: “They were probably sour anyway.”
And the moral of the story is:
“IT IS EASY TO DESPISE WHAT ONE CANNOT HAVE.”
