One day a very hungry fox noticed some delicious looking bunches of grapes hanging temptingly from an arbor high above his head.

"This is really stupid!" said the fox to himself; "this fruitless, empty-handed, hysterical leaping in the air like a psycho Mexican jumping bean to try to get at those grapes is an embarrassingly ridiculous gesture that only an idiot would continue with! They're completely out of reach and anyway everyone knows that foxes don't eat grapes in the first place!"

"But," thought the fox, somewhat self-consciously trying to justify his erratic, non-species behavior, "on the other hand, they might make a delicious jam for my friend the badger especially if they're still a bit sour since he particularly likes preserves that are on the tart side; and who knows, maybe he'll give me one of his plump little chickens in return."

So the fox, being a practical sort of fellow, borrowed a ladder and a gunnysack easily obtained from a neighboring farmer with the promise of revealing the badger's grandmother's famous grape jam recipe, scurried up the ladder and plucked away to his heart's content.

When the sack was filled, the fox dutifully returned the ladder to the amazed farmer who had never before seen a fox climb a ladder, let alone pick grapes, then recited the recipe to the farmer, and then and only then did he pick up the sackful of grapes, throw it over his shoulder and head to the badger's house, all the while mumbling away under his breath, "I hope they're sour! I sure hope they're sour!"

Moral:

If you don't like the taste of something, add a little sugar to it and give it to a badger.

[Editor's note: In a second version, the fox is less enterprising and fails to figure out how to get the grapes but says to himself, "Oh well, they were probably sweet anyway!"]