This is our traditional story whereof we will perform in Poland

THE BEAR TRICKED BY THE FOX

Once upon a time there was a cunning and tricky fox, as all foxes are. She was looking all night for something to eat, but she wasn’t lucky enough to find a single thing. When the light of the day came, she was resting in the tall grass, thinking how to find a way to get some food.

Laying on the ground like that, she suddenly felt some nice smell of fish. Looking around, she saw a cart coming.
– Hmmm! here’s the food I was waiting for, thought the hungry cunning fox.

So she went in the middle of the road and laid down on the ground as if she were dead.

When the peasant who slowly drove the cart approached and saw the fox, he stopped the bulls and feeling so lucky to find a dead fox in the middle of the road, because now he would be able to make a nice coat for his wife!

The man threw the fox in the cart over the fish and continued his way back home.

But as soon as the cart started to move, the hungry fox started throwing the fish down from the cart, on the road.

When the cunning fox thought that it was enough fish for a feast, she jumped down from the cart to take all the fish. Then she took all the fish into her den and made herself a delicious meal.
While she was eating the fish, a bear just passed near his den and asked :

– What are you eating there? Wow! Fish!!! Yummy…and you have a lot! Please , give me some, please, I am so hungry too!

The greedy fox answered then:

– Don’t you even think about it, bear! I took a big risk to get this fish and I don’t take risks for anybody but myself! If you are so hungry, do what I did and go to the pond and try to catch with your tail as many fish as you want!

The innocent bear asked the fox to teach him how to do it. That was all the fox was waiting for!

– “You go in the evening to the pond in the woods, and you put your tail into the water and wait until the day comes. Then you give a pull on it and see how many fish you got!
Very happy and confident, the bear went in the woods to the pond and put his tail in the cold water. It was a very cold night and the wind was blowing even colder.The water froze over and caught the bear’s tail in ice”.

After a few hours of waiting, the poor bear was almost frozen and tried to pull his tail out from the cold water.

Poor bear! Instead of fish, he lost his tail!

Screaming in pain, the bear went to catch the fox to get his revenge but, the cunning fox was hiding in the hollow of a tree laughing at the naïve bear:

– “Hey, bear! You wanted to catch all the fish from the pond and the fish ate your tail!”
Angry, the bear found a stick and started searching the fox in the hole.

But when the bear was pulling the Fox’s leg, she was laughing at him saying he got a tree branch.

And when the Bear was pushing the tree, she was crying:

– Stop pushing so hard, you are breaking my legs, was pretending the tricky fox!

In vain tried the poor bear to pull out the fox from the hole, and after a while, tired and angry, he abandoned the idea…

And that’s how the poor bear was tricked by the cunning fox!