What is the moral of Puss in Boots?

What that actually means

Most fairy tales reward the person who deserves it. This one does not, and it knows. The cat lies to a king, frightens a field of working men and takes a house that was not his, and the story ends by making him a lord. Iona and Peter Opie pointed out that the hero here barely deserves his good fortune. It is worth reading children one story where the clever one simply wins, and letting them decide for themselves whether that is fair.

What happens in the story

A miller leaves his youngest son a cat. The cat asks for a bag and a pair of boots, invents a nobleman called the Marquis de Carabas, and spends three months lying to a king on his master's behalf. There is a river, a field of frightened mowers, and an ogre who should never have taken the bait.

Questions to ask afterwards

The lesson lands better when a child works it out themselves.

1. The cat never tells his master what he is doing. Why do you think he keeps it to himself?
2. A field of grown men with scythes agree to lie for a cat in boots. What would you have said to him?
3. The ogre is only caught out because he wants to show off. Have you ever done something just to prove that you could?
4. The miller's son ends up with a castle and a wife without making a single decision. Did he earn any of it?
5. Should the cat have been punished at the end? There is no right answer to this one.