It happened in the wintertime when everything was covered with snow and ice and there was hardly anything to eat for all the animals.

One day, the bear and the fox met each other and the bear asked: "How can you be so merry in these times of hardship? I am starving, and you look as if there is no famine at all."

"That's right," the fox answered, "My belly is full of food. I have been fishing and I have eaten as much flounder as I wanted."

"Listen," the bear said, "you must teach me how to fish, because I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse."

"That can be done," the fox replied, and he brought the bear to a place with a little hole in the ice.

"Look," he said, "this is my fishpond. Put your tail through the hole and the fish will hang on to it, and as soon as the load is heavy enough, just raise your tail again and you'll have more fish than you can possibly eat."

That's worth a try, the bear thought, and he stuck his beautiful tail through the hole in the ice and waited until the fish started to bite.

After he had sat there for quite a while, he asked the fox: "Do you think I have waited long enough?"

"I don't think so," the fox replied: "You'll have to wait a little longer."

The fox made the bear wait for so long that his tail froze to the ice and could not be pulled out anymore.

Then he laughed at the bear and said: "Pull harder! Your catch must be heavy."

The bear pulled as hard as he could, but to no avail. In a final attempt, he pulled so hard, that his tail snapped off. Since that time bears have very short tails.