"The Wolf and the Crane" is one of Aesop's Fables. A wolf gets a bone stuck in its throat. It promises whoever is able to dislodge it gets rewarded handsomely. None of the animals help, fearing it might eat them, except a crane who sticks its head into the wolf's mouth and gets the bone out. When the bird asks about the reward, the wolf says the reward was its head was not bitten off.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Karma: In Ran Bosilek's version, a bear is in the wolf's role and a stork in the crane's, the ungrateful bear had managed to get out of paying the stork with the excuse about not being eaten is reward enough. But what happens when it needs to get another bone out? Well, the stork does not wanna be fooled a second time, so, just in case, he is going to pull out the bear's teeth first.
- Adaptation Species Change:
- Other versions replace the wolf with a lion and the crane with another bird species.
- Ran Bosilek's version has a bear in the wolf's role and a stork in the crane's.
- Being Good Sucks: A wolf gets a bone stuck in its throat and promises a crane a reward if it dislodges it. After the bone is removed, the crane asks about the reward, the wolf says it should be grateful that it did not bite its head off.
- The Big Bad Wolf: Zig-Zagged. The other animals do not help the wolf with taking the bone out stuck in its throat, fearing it might eat them. It even promises a reward for whoever dislodges it. The crane helps the wolf unharmed, and when it asks about the reward, the wolf says not being eaten is reward enough.
- The Cake Is a Lie: A wolf has a bone lodged in its throat and promises a crane a reward if it dislodges it. When the crane does so and asks for its reward, the wolf says that allowing him to stick its head into its mouth without biting it off was just that.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: The crane asks the wolf for the promised reward for dislodging a bone from its throat. The wolf instead says the actual reward was allowing the crane to survive the experience since its head was in the wolf's maw and it refused to attack while it was vulnerable.
- Farmer and the Viper: After dislodging the bone from the wolf's maw, the wolf only shows the bare minimum of gratitude and responds to the crane's expectancy of a reward by pointing out that it could have easily killed the crane during the procedure; the fact that it survived should be sufficient.
- Hard Truth Aesop: The higher your hopes, the more likely you are to be disappointed. If you put yourself in danger to help someone, they will not always be grateful and nothing more than a waste of time.
- It Only Works Once: In Ran Bosilek's version, the bird is unlikely to accept the same reward when another bone gets stuck in the bear's throat.
- Nameless Narrative: No one is given any name in this story.
- The Noun and the Noun: It is called "The Wolf and the Crane".
- Your Reward Is Your Life: The wolf promises the crane a reward if the latter gets a bone out of the former's throat. When the crane does so, the "reward" is that the wolf won't eat the crane afterwards.
- Zig-Zagging Trope: With The Big Bad Wolf. The other animals do not help the wolf with taking the bone out stuck in its throat, fearing it might eat them. It even promises a reward for whoever dislodges it. The crane helps the wolf unharmed, and when it asks about the reward, the wolf says not being eaten is reward enough.