This story was a popular one for Spartan parents to tell their sons. Once upon a time, there was a Spartan boy living in the barracks with other boys his age. The boys never seemed to get enough food. This was to toughen them up and they were encouraged to find additional food on their own. One night after the boys had been put to bed, one of them decided to steal some food. He snuck out in the darkness and went to a nearby farm where the farmer raised foxes. The boy got into the fox pen and stole a fox, but the foxes made such a racket that the farmer was awakened and came out to see what was up. He saw a shadowy figure running away in the direction of the barracks. The next day the farmer came to the military camp to report that one of his foxes was missing and it had to be one of the boys. The commander called all the boys to the parade ground. He told them that one of them had stolen a fox from the local farmer and he wanted to know who it was. No boy stepped forward so the commander told them they were going to stay until the thief identified himself. Hours passed and the sun was blazing. The boys were sweating, hungry, and thirsty. Suddenly, one of the boys collapsed. The commander came to him, thinking he had fainted from the heat. Upon examining him he found that hidden under the boy’s cloak was the fox. It had been eating at the boy’s stomach the whole time and he had passed out from loss of blood and this had caused the boy to die. But he hadn’t given himself up. This story was told by parents as a lesson to their sons. “You should be like this boy.”
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