Once, a big bear and a clever fox bought a firkin of butter together to share at Christmas. They hid it under a thick spruce bush and then lay down on a sunny bank to sleep.
After a while, the fox got up, shook himself, and shouted "Yes!" He ran straight to the firkin and ate a good third of the butter. When he returned, the bear noticed his full belly and asked where he had been.
"Don't you believe I was invited to a childbed feast?" said the fox.
"So, so," said the bear. "What was the child's name?"
"Just-begun," replied the fox.
They lay down to sleep again. Soon, the fox jumped up once more, shouted "Yes!" and ran back to the firkin, eating another large portion. Upon his return, he told the bear he had been invited to another naming feast.
"And what was the child's name this time?" asked the bear.
"Half-eaten," said the fox.
The bear thought this a very queer name but soon fell back asleep. Not long after, the fox got up again, shouted "Yes!" and went to the firkin, this time finishing all the butter. He told the bear he had been to yet another feast.
"And the child's name?" asked the bear.
"Licked-to-the-bottom," answered the fox.
Later, when they went to check the butter and found it all gone, each blamed the other. The fox, whose name was Reynard, proposed a test.
"Let's sleep in the sun," he said. "When we wake, whoever has the greasiest cheeks and chaps is the thief."
The bear agreed, confident he was innocent. While the bear slept, Reynard sneaked to the empty firkin, found a last morsel of butter stuck in a crack, and smeared it on the sleeping bear's face. Then he lay down as if nothing had happened.
When they awoke, the sun had melted the butter, making the bear's whiskers all greasy.
"So it was you, after all, who ate the butter!" declared the fox.
Was it?