It was a long time ago. A raven and an otter lived on the shore. We were friends. One day a crow came to visit an otter.
An otter met her. He doesn’t know what to treat him with. She placed the cauldron near the river. I poured water in there. Made a fire. What to cook? The otter has nothing.
She says to the crow:
“You sit here, and I’ll catch some fish.” She jumped over the cauldron and into the river.
And the crow looks - what is it? No otter. Did the otter really jump into the cauldron? She came up and looked into the cauldron - there was no one.
Well, he thinks, I’ll wait until she comes out of the cauldron. A crow walks through the forest, collecting grains.
An otter jumped out of the river. She put the caught fish in the cauldron. She cooked it and called the crow:
- Go eat fish!
The crow heard it and was happy. He watches the otter take fish out of the cauldron and thinks: Look, there are fish in the cauldron. But I didn’t even know.
Give me fish eyes, says the crow. - I like to peck at eyes.
The otter treated the crow with his eyes. The crow has eaten and calls the otter:
- Now you come and visit me. The otter came to visit the crow. The crow thinks:
“What should I treat you with?” The crow has nothing.
She put the cauldron on, poured water, and lit a fire. The water began to boil.
The crow says to the otter:
“You lie in the sun, and I’ll catch some fish.” The otter lay down on the shore and basks in the sun. And the crow approached the cauldron and thought: I’ll dive into the cauldron and catch fish there. She walked and walked around the cauldron and jumped into the water.
The otter lay in the sun for a long time.
“Why,” he thinks, “there’s still no crow, we need to see what it’s doing.”
The otter came up to the cauldron, looked in, and there was a boiled crow swimming.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru