Once upon a time there lived a poor man named Chaltuk-Akhmed.
He had no property, but only one old, sick horse. Chaltuk-Ahmed felt sorry for his horse. For two whole weeks he did not work on it, but at night he let it go into the field on the grass.
But two weeks passed, and the horse did not recover at all. She became completely skinny and had sores on her back.
Chaltuk-Ahmed became alarmed. I decided to keep watch in the field all night.
So he let his horse graze, and he hid behind a large stone.
When midnight came, wild animals came: a wolf, a bear, a boar and a fox. It turns out they were playing with the horse, taking turns climbing onto its back and scratching it with their claws.
Chaltuk-Ahmed could not stand it. He jumped out from behind a stone and caught all the animals. But the animals got scared and began to ask him to let them go free.
The wolf said that he would bring a large flock of sheep to Chaltuk-Ahmed. The boar promised to plow his field, the bear promised to show him an old tree in the forest, the hollow of which was full of honey. One fox did not promise anything. She only said:
- I'm thin and small. What good will it do you if you kill me? Let me go, maybe I will be useful to you in difficult times.
Chaltuk-Ahmed thought and thought and let them all go.
The next day, the wolf drove a flock of sheep into the courtyard of Chaltuk-Ah-med.
The boar plowed his small field with its tusks in due time. And there the bear came and began to call Chaltuk-Ahmed for
honey.
Chaltuk-Ahmed took with him an ax and wineskins for honey and went with the bear into the forest.
The bear led him into the thicket of the forest, they found an old tree, from the hollow of which fragrant honey was oozing, and then the bear said:
“Now I’ll strangle you and eat you!”
Chaltuk-Ahmed was stupefied with fear and dropped the ax, and the bear began to strangle Chaltuk-Ahmed.
Suddenly they hear someone calling:
- Chaltuk-Ahmed! Chultuk-Ahmed!
“Here I am!” he responded, recognizing the voice of the fox.
- Chaltuk-Ahmed, have you seen a bear? Hunters come here, they need a bear skin.
The bear got scared and whispered to Chaltuk-Ahmed:
- Say you don’t know, say you don’t know!
“I don’t know!” shouted Chaltuk-Ahmed.
“What is this in front of you?” asked the fox.
- Say - block! Say “block,” the honey whispered.
after all.
“This is a block of wood!” replied Chaltuk-Ahmed.
“Does a block of wood have ears?” asked the fox.
- Tell me it's a bitch! “Tell me it’s a bitch!” whispered the bear.
“This is a bitch!” shouted Chaltuk-Ahmed.
“Then take an ax and hit between them harder!” - the fox ordered.
“Take the ax and hit it lightly, dear Chaltuk-Ahmed!” the bear cried. “I will never forget your kindness.”
“No, I don’t believe you!” said Chaltuk-Ahmed. Swung and hit the bear.
Then a fox came out of the bushes. He and Chaltuk-Akhmed collected wineskins full of honey and went home.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru