All their stuff was piled up, neat as you please, and on the very top of that pile, was the thief... a young, female fox! She had taken all their things out of the village to make herself a nest! Even as they watched, the male fox appeared behind them, carrying more things from their homes. The nest they had made was much larger than one fox pair should need, but they looked young and probably hadn't built a nest before. They easily could have been nervous and wanted to be sure their kits had the best start to life.
The townspeople turn as one to the boy, but the man in charge is the one who speaks. He asked the boy how he had known. The boy told him that a human simply wouldn't take the things she had. Also, it couldn't be a human, because they would have noticed a strange face in the town. It had to be something else. And since the sight of foxes was common in their village, one wandering around wouldn't even be looked at twice.
Also, he added, I saw her take some of the stuff. The townspeople didn't know what to make of any of this, so they turned and walked silently back to their tiny, ordinary town, where nothing ever happened. They vowed to learn from this, and listen to the littlest ones, but they didn't. The lesson that they had learned from a little boy stayed with them only a short time. Soon, the children held the same position as they had before. The story was dutifully told to the Herald on circuit who arrived after they had solved the mystery, which reminded them that they had promised to be more considerate of the youngest in the village. It still didn't last long.
But, even to this day, there is one little old man who thinks back to that day when he "saved the town," and knows that he learned a lesson that stayed with him his whole life. That lesson was "Listen to those around you... you never know who will bring the wisdom that you seek."
LISTEN TO THOSE AROUND YOU, EVEN WHEN THEY AREN'T SPEAKING.
Thank you for reading! Please review! Let me know what you think of this story, so that I can improve.