Gon is a little fox. Looking for food he comes to a little village, where he repeatedly steals food and creates other mischief, constantly evading the angry villagers.

One day Gon steals an eel in front of Hyoju, which Hyoju wanted to give to his sick old mother. His mother subsequently dies. Gon realizes his mistake and tries to make it up by secretly giving Hyoju gifts he stole, although the villagers now accuse Hyoju of stealing and beat him up. Afterwards, Gon only gives mushrooms and nuts he collected in the forest. Hyoju is grateful for the gifts, although he does not know where they come from. One day, Hyoju sees the fox sneaking around, and shoots him to death out of anger about the death of his mother. Only afterwards does he realize to his horror that the fox he just shot gave him all the mushrooms and nuts.

Japanese stories do not always have a happy end. In this story, Hyoju's mother dies, Gon gets shot by Hyoju while trying to make up for his errors, and Hyoju feels guilty for shooting the fox that was trying to help him. The moral is often interpreted that everybody has to accept his fate.