Fox and Crane

When fox with her pointed muzzle and bushy tail one day came back from hunting, she met crane with her long legs and narrow, long beak. “Dear Mrs. Crane, what are you searching for that you are bending down again and again?” asked fox.
„I turn the sky into my horse, the steppe into my ger and search for insects to turn them into food to fill my belly. Fox, dear old madam, what are you searching for sniffling along?” replied crane.
„I’m on the hunt, too, and when my muzzle and my nose have become greasy, I will head home. You who I have just met in the steppes and thus come to know, please honor me with a visit,” said fox and after thus inviting crane, she went on.
On the next day, the long-legged, narrow-beaked crane happily came to the pointy-muzzled, bushy-tailed one.
„Ah, my friend, the way here surely has tired you,“ said fox and led crane into her ger where she served a thin, steaming hot soup on a flat plate. “Please enjoy!” said fox and gave her the plate.
Crane with her long, narrow beak and her long legs could not find a way to eat the hot, thin soup from the flat plate; she circled the plate, her beak watering to no avail. Fox saw this and asked: “What are you examining? Don’t be shy, eat, eat!” Fox had slurped her soup all up and was licking the plate clean, so people say. Crane, though, could not eat anything and so she got up and went home with her belly still empty.
“Dear madam fox, please pay me a visit tomorrow,” crane invited her.
And so on the next day, fox came with her pointed muzzle and the bushy tail, all dressed up, to the long-legged, narrow-beaked one.
„Ah, my friend, the way here surely has tired you,“ said crane and led fox into her ger where she served fragrant rice in a narrow-necked vase. “Please enjoy!” said crane and gave her the vase.
But even though fox pushed her pointed muzzle into the vase, her tongue could not reach the rice. Since she could not, she circled the vase, licking here and there. Crane saw this and said: “My food is good, is it not? Why are you so shy?” She had already picked up and eaten her own rice, so it is told.
Fox, though, could not eat a single, tiny grain of rice and so she went home with her belly still empty, so it is told.