The Fox and the Cat (fable)

The Fox and the Cat is an ancient fable, with both Eastern and Western analogues involving different animals, that addresses the difference between resourceful expediency and a master stratagem. Included in collections of Aesop's fables since the start of printing in Europe, it is number 605 in the Perry Index. In the basic story a cat and a fox discuss how many tricks and dodges they have. The fox boasts that he has many; the cat confesses to having only one. When hunters arrive with their dogs, the cat quickly decides to climb a tree, but the fox thinks of many ways without acting and is caught by the hounds. Many morals have been drawn from the fable's presentations through history and, as Isaiah Berlin's use of it in his essay "The Hedgehog and the Fox" shows, it continues to be interpreted anew.

The fable and its variants is a story of world-wide popularity which contrasts the fate of one animal proud of the many tricks at its disposal with another with just one simple trick. In time of danger it is that one trick that proves more effective than the many options.

There is a proverb in a fragment attributed to the ancient Greek poet Archilochus: πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ' ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα (the fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing). In Erasmus' Adagia from 1500, the expression is recorded as Multa novit vulpes, verum echinus unum magnum. This proverb seems to imply the existence of an ancient fable involving a hedgehog instead of a cat, as do some folktales from the Balkans.

An analogous story in book 5 the Panchatantra (story 6) illustrates the danger of being too clever. The tale concerns two fish, Satabuddhi (hundred-wit) and Sahasrabuddhi (thousand-wit) and a frog, Ekabuddhi (single-wit), who inhabit the same pond. When they hear two fishermen talk about returning the next day to fish, frog is anxious. "Oh, my friend," Sahasrabuddhi says, "don't be afraid of words alone! They probably will not come back. But even if they do come back, I will be able to protect myself and you as well, through the power of my understanding, for I know many pathways through the water." Satabuddhi adds, "Yes, what Sahasrabuddhi says is correct, for one rightly says: Where neither the wind nor the sun's rays have found a way, intelligent understanding will quickly make a path." The frog's single understanding, however, advises him to flee, and this is what he does, leaving the two fish to try to find their own way to escape the fishermen. But the fish are caught in a net, while the frog escapes.

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