Something had to be done, but they did not know what.

Suddenly a bright thought struck the tanuki. 'I have got a plan,' he
cried joyfully to his wife. 'I will pretend to be dead, and you must
change yourself into a man, and take me to the village for sale. It
will be easy to find a buyer, tanukis' skins are always wanted; then
buy some food with the money and come home again. I will
manage to escape somehow, so do not worry about me.'

The fox laughed with delight, and rubbed her paws together with
satisfaction. 'Well, next time I will go,' she said, 'and you can sell
me.' And then she changed herself into a man, and picking up the
stiff body of the tanuki, set off towards the village. She found him
rather heavy, but it would never have done to let him walk through
the wood and risk his being seen by somebody.

As the tanaki had foretold, buyers were many, and the fox handed
him over to the person who offered the largest price, and hurried to
get some food with the money. The buyer took the tanuki back to
his house, and throwing him into a corner went out. Directly the
tanaki found he was alone, he crept cautiously through a chink of
the window, thinking, as he did so, how lucky it was that he was
not a fox, and was able to climb. Once outside, he hid himself in a
ditch till it grew dusk, and then galloped away into the forest.

While the food lasted they were all three as happy as kings; but
there soon arrived a day when the larder was as empty as ever. 'It
is my turn now to pretend to be dead,' cried the fox. So the tanuki
changed himself into a peasant, and started for the village, with his
wife's body hanging over his shoulder. A buyer was not long in