The Cicada and the Fox

A cicada was singing on a tall tree. A fox who wanted to eat her thought up the following trick. He placed himself in front of her, admired her beautiful voice, and invited her to come down: he longed, he said, to see the creature with such a voice. But the cicada, suspecting the trap, tore off a leaf and let it fall. The fox rushed at it, thinking it was the cicada. "You're mistaken, my friend," she said, "if you thought I would come down: I have been wary of foxes ever since I saw cicada wings in the droppings of one of them."