Yes, "tales" should be "tails". This is a reference to an old nursery rhyme entitled: "Three blind mice".

It should definitely be "tails." It's some kind of mistake. There are innumerable puns on the words "tail" and "tale" in English, but this isn't one of them, it's just an error on somebody's part. The very well-known nursery rhyme and song, a cultural universal among English speakers, is: "Three blind mice! Three blind mice! See how they run! See how they run! They all ran after the farmer's wife, She cut off their tails with a carving knife! Did you ever see such a sight in your life As three blind mice?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnwpFMeOFhk in English. In "Through the Looking-Glass," there is a poem called "The Mouse's Tale" (t-a-l-e) in which the words on the page are actually printed in the shape of a mouse's tail (t-a-i-l) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse's_Tale but as you've quoted it, it can't possible be a joke--it's just someone's mistake.