A bear, a pig and a fox became friends and decided to plow the land together and sow wheat. They began to agree on what everyone would undertake to do.
“I’ll sneak into the barn and steal the grain, and then I’ll plow the field with my snout,” says the pig.
“And I will sow,” says the bear.
“And I’ll harrow with my tail,” says the fox.
They plowed and sowed. It's time for the harvest. They began to decide who would do what.
“I will reap,” says the pig.
“I will knit sheaves,” says the bear.
“I will collect fallen ears of corn,” says the fox.
They harvested the wheat, tied it into sheaves and began to negotiate how to thresh.
“I’ll clear the threshing floor,” says the pig.
“I will carry sheaves and thresh,” says the bear.
“I will shake the sheaves and separate the straw,” says the pig.
“And I will clear the grain from the chaff with my tail,” says the fox.
“I will winnow,” says the pig.
“I will share the bread,” says the bear.
And so they did. We started dividing the harvest. The bear divided the bread, but unfairly. The pig begged him to give her straw, and he took the grain for himself, but the fox got nothing. The fox got angry, grumbled and said that he would bring a man from the royal court and he would divide everything fairly. The pig and the bear got cold feet and decided to hide.
“You, pig, bury yourself in the straw, and I’ll climb up the pear tree,” said the bear.
And so they did. And the fox went, found the cat and invited her to the threshing floor to catch mice. The cat readily agreed, she knew, dear, that there were a lot of them there. She walks with the fox, but along the road she runs after the birds. The bear from the pear tree saw them from afar and said to the pig:
- Trouble, pig! Over there is a fox leading some kind of terrible monster: it has fur like a marten, but it also catches winged birds in flight.
Then the bear lost sight of the cat, and she silently made her way through the grass to the threshing floor and, looking for mice, began rustling the straw. The pig raised its muzzle and wanted to know what was the matter, but the cat mistook its snout for a mouse, jumped up and grabbed it with its claws. The pig grunted in fear, jumped and fell straight into the stream, and the cat got scared of the pig and climbed up the pear tree. The bear thought that she had already finished off the pig and was coming at him, out of fear he fell from the pear, crashed and died. And the fox got both grain and straw.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru