Once upon a time, a long time ago, a bat lived in the forest, just like birds. Every morning, as soon as the sun appeared, she flew out of her nest, sang songs and looked for food.
One day a magpie and a crow quarreled over some grain. The crow claimed that she was the first to see this grain and therefore it should belong to her, but the magpie said that she found the grain and would never give it to the crow.
Neither one nor the other wanted to give in to each other, they started shouting and then started fighting. In the heat of the fight, they did not notice how they flew out of the forest and lost the grain.
The bat was sitting on a tree nearby during this quarrel. As soon as the fighters flew away, she quietly went down and ate the grain. And then, singing cheerfully, she began to fly through the forest.
Having flown up to the crow's nest, she saw that she was sitting angry and angry. She apparently had a bad time in the fight: her nose turned blue, her face was swollen.
“Sister,” the bat spoke quietly to her, “you and I are old friends, just like family.” That’s why I want to tell you how the magpie scolded you just now: you’re black, and funny, and stupid, and she also says that you shouldn’t steal her grain.
“Oh, she’s worthless, impudent,” the crow was indignant, “I won’t be me if I don’t peck her!”
The bat pretended that she was also angry, said something bad about the magpie and flew away. And then, flying up to the magpie’s nest, she spoke:
- Sister is forty, and sister is forty! You and I are old friends, just like family. That’s why I want to tell you how the crow scolded you just now: you’re impudent and worthless, and she also said that she would peck you.
Hearing this, the magpie was unable to utter a word out of anger. The bat sympathized with her, scolded the crow and flew away.
Since then, the magpie and the crow became enemies. But both considered the bat their friend and always invited it to visit them.
The king of birds, the phoenix, having learned about the quarrel between the magpie and the crow, decided to reconcile them. And then one early morning he gathered all the birds in the forest. There was also a bat here. The last to arrive were the crow and the magpie. They looked at each other - and both flushed with anger. Phoenix wanted them to first talk about the reason for the quarrel, and then the other birds would talk.
The crow told how they quarreled over grain and how the magpie called her black, and funny, and stupid.
“I didn’t say that,” the magpie, unable to bear it, interrupted her, “so she scolded me as impudent and worthless and threatened to peck me.” “If you hadn’t been the first to scold me, I wouldn’t have done this,” said the crow.
And they began to argue about who started scolding whom first. They were flushed from the screaming, and their crops were swollen.
The phoenix listened to them for a long time and finally decided: let each of them bring a witness to prove that they were right.
- Bat, here is a witness! - the crow and magpie exclaimed in one voice.
Everyone looked at the bat, waiting for what she would say. But she realized that she was caught and did not utter a word. She lowered her head, blushed deeply and flew away.
Then it became clear to everyone who was the culprit in the feud between the magpie and the crow. And they realized that they should not have believed other people’s words, and became friends again.
When all the birds found out that the bat was a liar, no one wanted to be her friend anymore. And she herself was very ashamed. In order to avoid encountering birds, she left the forest and settled under the eaves of a man’s dwelling. During the day she hid in her nest and flew out of there only in the evening, when the birds flew into the forest.
Without straying far from the nest, she fed on small insects. And she stopped singing completely, because she was afraid that the birds would hear her.
And to this day, the bat lives differently from all birds.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru