Head or Tail

One day, a wolf’s wife had a great longing to eat fish. The wolf said he would try and bring her some, though he did not know how to catch fish. However, he went to a river hoping for the best.
On the banks of the river, there were two otters. They had also come there to catch fish. Their smooth fur glistened with water drops. It was evident that they had been diving, but so far they had not been successful in catching anything.
Then one of them saw a huge fish suddenly in the water and dived in to the water. When he reached it, he found it was too big for him to bring it to the bank alone. So, he called out to the other otter to come.

The second otter dived into the water to join him. Between them they dragged the fish and placed it on the bank. They flopped down exhausted. Then began a discussion about who was to have the head and who the tail. The first one said, “I caught him first, so I deserve the head.” “No,” said the second one firmly, “When we brought him, I was holding the head and you the tail. So I deserve it!” The argument began in a mild way, but developed into a loud, serious quarrel.
The wolf had been standing behind a bush watching the otters fight for fish. He was waiting to see if they would dive again. Then, when they were in the river, the fish would be unguarded on the bank and he could take it and run away. But there did not seem to be any hope of their leaving that fish.
Then he heard their voices rising. They were quarrelling. He decided to creep closer and hear what they were fighting about. He crept to a bush closer to them. Then he heard that they were quarrelling about the fish; about which of them would take the head! “Aha!” he thought, “I have a great opportunity to grab that fish now. These two stupid fellows and their quarrel will help me!”

He put on a very serious expression and came out from behind the bush. “Oh! Sir, can you help us, please? We have been trying to divide this fish between us. We cannot decide how to divide it between us.”
“That’s easy,” said the wolf, “You take the head and you take the tail. I’ll take this as payment for deciding your quarrel,” he said and he ran away home with the rest of the fish!

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