Once a fox invited a stork¹ to dinner. He put nothing on the table except some soup in a very shallow dish.

The fox could easily lap up the soup, but the stork could only wet the end of her long bill in it.

When she left the meal, she was still very hungry. "I am sorry," said the fox, "the soup is not to your taste."

"Please do not apologize," said the stork. "I hope you will come to my house, and dine² with me soon."

A few days later the fox visited the stork. He found that his food was put in a long bottle, and the mouth of the bottle was very narrow.

He could not insert his big mouth into it, so he ate nothing. "I will not apologize," said the stork. "One bad turn deserves another."

一次，狐狸请鹤来吃饭。他除了浅盘子中的一点汤以外，什么也没有准备。

狐狸可以轻而易举地喝到汤，但是鹤只够蘸湿他长长的嘴尖。吃完饭后，鹤仍旧很饥饿。“很抱歉,”狐狸说,“这汤不合你的口味”。

“别客气，”鹤说，“过几天请到我家来和我一起吃饭吧。”

几天后，狐狸应邀而至，他发现食物都装在一个长长的瓶子里，而瓶口很细，他无法将他的大嘴伸进去，什么也吃不到。“我不想道歉，这是你应得的回报。”鹤说。