The Man and the Fox

A man tricks a young fox into believing that he will give him a chicken. The man traps him, but the fox, through his ingenuity and perseverance, manages to escape. This story can inspire children to face challenges and even to make use of obstacles in their paths to solve problems. This tale is one of the many hundreds of Sufi developmental stories collected by Idries Shah from oral and written sources in Central Asia and the Middle East. For more than a thousand years this story has entertained young people and helped to foster in them the ability to examine their assumptions and to think for themselves.