Once upon a time there lived a poor dishwasher. From morning to night he made wooden utensils, and this is what he fed on.
So one day he went to the shore of the sea to cut down a soft and flexible branch for a hoop to hang on. I saw a red birch and already raised the ax over it, as the birch says in a human voice:
– Don’t destroy me, good man! Don't cut my red branches. Ask for whatever you want. I will fulfill any of your wishes.
“Have it your way,” the cook agreed. - Just make me a merchant.
And not a day had passed before yesterday’s poor man became rich and became a merchant. There are countless workers on his farmstead, in the barns there is a wealth of different goods, apparently and invisibly, in his tight purse there is plenty of money. And the former cook himself walks around the yard, shouting at his servants. But he soon got tired of such a life. The former dishwasher went to the red birch tree again.
- I want to be a king! - speaks.
Before he had time to look back, a wondrous kingdom had appeared around him. even the servants in that kingdom wear beaver hats, and rich people bow low to the king-father. And no one remembers that he was once a poor crockery worker. “Only the birch tree knows about this,” thinks the newly-crowned king. And if so, he decided to cut down the red birch tree.
No sooner said than done. The king, accompanied by his army, went to the seashore. Seeing the red birch tree, the servants rushed with sharp axes to carry out the royal command. But the birch tree rustled with all its branches and spoke in a human voice:
- Look around your king.
The servants looked around and saw: the king had turned into a bear and started running into the dense forest. But can you run away from yourself?
That is why the Buryats say that the bear was formerly a king, and if they meet face to face, they will definitely turn to him with the words: “Tsar-man, make way!” – and the bear turns away, says the taiga people.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru