A bird and a mouse live. They began to prepare food for themselves for the winter. The mouse says to the bird:
- Birdie, let's eat together. First we will eat your supplies, and then, when we have eaten your supplies, we will eat mine.
The bird agreed. The bird's reserves were on the surface of the earth, and the mouse's were hidden in the ground.
Some time passed. The bird's supplies were quickly eaten up. When the bird's supplies were eaten, the bird said to the mouse:
- Well, now, mouse, we will eat your supplies. Hearing this, the mouse ran into its hole and called from there:
- Well, friend, come in, come into my house, don’t be shy! The bird tries to enter, but cannot, its wings get stuck in the hole.
Then the mouse said to the bird:
- Well, since you can’t come in, live alone as you please. The bird got angry and began to scold the mouse:
- Oh, you liar! What kind of comrade are you? If I knew that you would do this, I would not feed you. How will I live now? I'll complain about you to my master, the eagle. “Don’t scare me!” says the mouse. “I also have an owner, a snake, I can also complain.”
The bird began to live alone. He jumps all day, looking for food. But what can you find? Everything is covered with snow.
And then one day, when the bird was flying through the bushes and looking for food, an eagle flew in.
- Why are you jumping all the time? - he asks the bird.
“I have no food,” the bird answers.
- Why didn’t you stock up?
- I did, but the mouse deceived me. Then she told the eagle everything.
“Don’t be sad,” says the eagle, “we will organize a meeting.” Let's force the mouse to give you food. I will report everything to the mouse-snake mistress. Call all our various bird relatives to the meeting. And tell the mouse to invite her friends to the meeting - all the animals living in the earth.
When the eagle flew away, the bird came to the mouse hole and told it about the meeting.
The mouse said:
- Why gather together? I won't give you my supplies anyway.
“That’s what my master the eagle said.” Go call your friends!
The mouse went to call his friends. The bird also flew to inform its relatives about the meeting.
After a while everyone gathered. Various birds arrived: ducks, geese, partridges, wood grouse, swans, hazel grouse, crows, jackdaws and other birds. And their owner, the eagle, flew in.
The mouse's relatives - mice and various worms - also crawled along with their snake owner. The eagle began to speak:
- Birds and everyone living in the earth, listen to me! In the fall, the bird and the mouse prepared food together. Everyone knows this well. They lived amicably while they ate bird supplies. But now the bird is dying without food. The mouse doesn't want to feed it. Then the snake asked his subordinates:
- Which of you did this? The mice squealed:
- There are no liars among us! We haven't heard of the trickster mouse!
The snake said to the eagle:
- Feed your bird yourself, we won’t give it food! Then the eagle and the snake began to fight. The eagle hit the snake with its wing, so much so that it barely crawled away.
There was nothing to do, the mouse had to give half of his supply to the bird.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru