The Fox and the Cat trick Pinocchio into burying his coins

The Fox and the Cat trick Pinocchio into burying his coins by turning a gift meant for his father into bait for a promise of effortless riches. The episode moves from apparent generosity to a carefully staged fraud: Pinocchio is promised a fortune, performs the planting ritual, and returns to find that his money has vanished. His eagerness to believe the scheme costs him the coins and sends him seeking justice in the City of Simple Simons.

The Coins and the Encounter

Pinocchio meets the Fox and the Cat on his way home after receiving five gold pieces from Fire Eater. The gift was intended for his father, whose poverty Pinocchio has just described: Geppetto sold his patched coat to buy his son an A-B-C book. The coins therefore carry more than monetary value. They represent a chance to answer Geppetto’s sacrifice and a test of whether Pinocchio will keep his attention on the purpose for which the money was given.

The Fox and the Cat first present themselves as a pair of helpless travelers. The Fox is lame and leans on the Cat, while the Cat appears blind and lets the Fox lead. Their performance of mutual dependence makes them look like companions in need rather than predators looking for a victim. The Fox greets Pinocchio by name, and the two draw him into conversation.

The decisive temptation comes as an offer to multiply his money. The Fox claims that a gold piece planted in the Field of Wonders, just outside the City of Simple Simons, will sprout overnight into a tree laden with coins. He describes a plausible-sounding procedure—dig a hole, bury the money, cover it, water the earth, and add salt—then promises that Pinocchio’s five pieces could yield twenty-five hundred. The precision of the instructions and the spectacular arithmetic give the false promise the appearance of practical knowledge.

Persuasion and the Planting Ritual

The Fox and the Cat reinforce the deception by presenting themselves as unusually selfless guides. When Pinocchio wonders why they would help him become rich, the Fox says that they work not for their own gain but to enrich others. Pinocchio takes this claim as evidence of their goodness. He forgets Geppetto, the new coat, the A-B-C book, and his resolutions, and agrees to go with them. The fraud succeeds not simply because he wants money, but because the promise redirects his hope away from the obligations that had given the coins their purpose.

At the Field of Wonders, the Fox tells Pinocchio to dig. Pinocchio follows the directions closely and buries four gold pieces, carefully covering them with earth. When told to fetch water from a nearby brook, he has no pail, so he takes off his shoe, fills it with water, and sprinkles the spot. His small improvisation makes the scene concrete: he is not merely listening to a boast but laboring over the ritual as though its outcome were assured.

The Fox says that nothing more is needed and instructs Pinocchio to return in twenty minutes, when the vine will have grown and its branches will be full of gold. Pinocchio thanks the pair and offers each a beautiful gift. They refuse, claiming that helping him become rich with little or no trouble is reward enough. Their refusal completes the disguise: even at the moment they have arranged to take his money, they make themselves sound content with the pleasure of generosity.

Discovery of the Theft

While Pinocchio is away in the city, the Fox and the Cat return to the buried coins, take all four, and run off. On his return, a Parrot exposes what has happened and explains the trick: gold cannot be sown in a field like ordinary seeds, and the supposed benefactors have stolen what Pinocchio buried. The revelation replaces the promised abundance with an empty patch of earth.

Pinocchio initially refuses to believe the Parrot. He digs furiously until the hole is as large as himself, but the money is gone. The fruitless digging is the physical counterpart of the fraud: all the care he invested in the Fox’s instructions has produced no fortune, only the confirmation that he has been robbed. The episode’s reversal is blunt. What appeared to be a route to multiplying his gift has instead erased it.

Consequences and Significance

Desperate, Pinocchio goes to the courthouse in the City of Simple Simons and reports the robbery to the magistrate, a venerable Gorilla Judge. He recounts the theft, identifies the Fox and the Cat, and asks for justice. His appeal does not recover the coins; instead, the episode is identified with the further consequence of Pinocchio’s imprisonment for reporting the theft. Seeking help through the authorities thus brings another misfortune rather than the remedy he expects.

The deception contrasts sharply with the earlier gift from Fire Eater. That gift was freely given after Pinocchio’s account of Geppetto’s sacrifice; the Fox and the Cat, by contrast, wrap theft in the language of kindness and service. The distinction is not simply between keeping and giving money. One exchange recognizes another person’s need, while the other manipulates Pinocchio’s trust and desire for a shortcut.

The Parrot’s explanation makes the episode’s economic lesson explicit: money must be earned honestly through work, by hand or by brain. That principle also answers the false promise at the heart of the scheme. The Fox offers wealth without labor; the actual result is loss, fear, and punishment. Pinocchio’s credulity matters because he abandons the purpose of the coins and accepts an impossible promise, but the fraud itself depends on the Fox and the Cat’s practiced performance of sympathy and generosity. The Field of Wonders turns a familiar hope—that a small resource might grow into enough to help a family—into a trap, exposing the cost of trusting riches that require no work and promise no honest exchange.