The Fox and the Grapes
- 2 minute read
- Ages 4-8
- Aesop's Fables
A fox was walking through a garden one hot afternoon when he looked up and saw grapes.
They hung in a heavy purple bunch from a vine trained along a high wall, and they were fat and shining and exactly ripe. The fox's mouth watered.
The first jump
He backed up, ran forward and jumped.
He missed by a long way.
He tried again, running further and jumping harder, and his nose brushed the lowest leaf, and he came down.
He tried a third time from the other side. A fourth time from a rock. A fifth time with a proper run-up along the whole length of the wall.
Each time, the grapes hung exactly where they had been hanging, and the fox landed in the dust.
Giving up
At last he sat down, hot and dusty and out of breath, and looked up at them for a while.
Then he stood, brushed himself off and set off down the path with his nose in the air.
"I did not want them anyway," he said, loudly, to nobody. "Anyone can see they are sour. Green, probably, under the skin. You would be ill for a week."
And he walked away, telling himself so all the way home.
Moral of the story
It is easy to decide you never wanted the thing you failed to get. Pretending you did not want it does not make the failure smaller.
Questions and answers
- What did the fox see in the garden?
He saw a heavy bunch of ripe purple grapes hanging from a vine along a high wall.
- How many times did the fox try to reach the grapes?
He tried at least five times, running at the wall from different angles and even jumping from a rock.
- Why could the fox not reach the grapes?
They were hanging too high on the wall for him to jump to, however hard he tried.
- What did the fox say as he walked away?
He said the grapes were sour and unripe and that he had never wanted them at all.
- Did the fox really believe the grapes were sour?
No. He had no way of tasting them. He said it to make himself feel better about failing.
Word meanings
- vine
- A climbing plant that grapes grow on.
- ripe
- Fully grown and ready to eat.
- sour
- Having a sharp, bitter taste, like a lemon.
- run-up
- The running you do before jumping, to gain speed.
Questions about The Fox and the Grapes
What is the moral of The Fox and the Grapes?
The moral is that people often pretend to despise what they cannot have. Pretending you never wanted something is a way of hiding disappointment from yourself.
Where does the phrase 'sour grapes' come from?
It comes directly from this fable. It describes someone who criticises a thing only because they failed to get it.
Is the fox lying to others or to himself?
Mostly to himself. There is nobody else in the garden. That is what makes the fable memorable.
Why is this fable so short?
Aesop's fables are deliberately brief. The story only needs to show one action and one reaction for the lesson to land.