[grimm tale] little red riding hood

One afternoon a big wolf was waiting in a dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket of food to her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come along and she was carrying a basket of food.

'Are you carrying that basket to your grandmothers?' asked the wolf. The little girl said yes, she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he disappeared into the wood.

When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she could see that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on.

She approached no nearer than three metres from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother at all but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look the least like anybody's grandmother. So the little girl took an automatic pistol out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.

Moral. It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.

James Thurber:Fables for Our Time [adapted]