One man wanted to play the flute, but he did not have a flute. He went to the shop to buy himself a flute. In the shop, he spent a long time choosing and examining one flute after another, blowing into each one and feeling the outside and even the inside. He stuck his finger so deep into one flute that he could not pull it back out. I pulled and pulled, but my finger didn’t come out. He pulled with all his might and his finger got stuck even tighter. No matter how he fought, the finger did not move either back or forward. There was only one thing left to do to get the finger out: break the flute. But the flute was someone else’s. So, I had to buy it first.
— Excuse me, please, how much does your flute cost? - he asked the owner of the shop.
The owner thought: “This careless man has stuck his finger too deep into my flute and can’t get rid of it. So he will pay me whatever he wants.”
And he asked for the flute as much as three flutes cost. The buyer did not bargain and, having paid for the flute, ran home to break it with a hammer and free his finger.
He did not have to carry his purchase either in his hands or in his pocket: it was put on his finger. He waved his finger in all directions because his finger hurt.
Suddenly, from behind the high bamboo fence of one house, he heard the beautiful sounds of a flute.
He wanted to know who played so well. He even forgot that his finger hurt.
In the hedge he finally found a place where the bamboo poles parted and a gap formed between them.
He looked through the crack with one eye, trying to see what was happening behind the fence. But the gap was so narrow that he could not see anything.
Then he pressed his face even tighter to the fence. This caused the bamboo rods to separate even more, and he managed to stick his entire head into the gap.
But at that very moment the beautiful music ended, and the curtain on the balcony was lowered.
- What a shame! He barely stuck his head through, but there was nothing to look at! The flute lover again remembered that his finger hurt, and pulled his head back. But his head was stuck tightly in the crack. The bamboo poles, which he had parted with his forehead, now came together again and clamped his neck like a collar. He twitched and turned his head so that the fence cracked.
The owners of the house ran out to hear the noise. When they saw the head sticking out among the bamboo bars of the fence, they shouted:
- What do you want? Why did you bother here? “Excuse me, please,” said the flute lover, “how much does your fence cost?” I would like to take her with me.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru