One day two peasants were driving buffaloes out of India. They walked for a long time, got tired and lay down to rest under a tree.
At midnight one of the peasants woke up, went to look at the buffaloes and saw that both had calved. His buffalo brought a bull, and his friend’s buffalo brought a heifer.
The peasant took and moved the calves: he put a heifer with his own buffalo, and a buffalo calf with someone else’s. I did this, returned under the tree and fell asleep.
In the morning, another peasant wakes up and sees that his buffalo has given birth to a buffalo calf. The peasant became sad, woke up his companion and told him about his grief. He smiled and answered like this:
- And you sleep more! Haven’t you heard the proverb: “The one who is awake gives birth to a heifer, and the one who sleeps gives birth to a buffalo!”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru