One day, a crucian carp, basking in the sun, dozed off in a creek, near the very shore. At this time, a bear came down to the river from the taiga: he was thirsty. The bear saw the crucian carp, hit the water with its paw, and splashed the crucian carp onto the shore.
“Yeah,” he says to the crucian carp, “I got you, now I’ll eat you.”
And he opened his mouth completely and swallowed the crucian carp. He sees the crucian carp - it’s a bad thing: he has to disappear. He resorted to tricks and said:
- Wait, bear. If you have time to eat me, I still won’t be able to leave the shore. Let's better compete first: which of us is more resilient, you or me? I will stay on the shore instead of you, and you climb into the water in my place. Whichever of us survives longer and does not die will remain the winner.
The bear agreed: he didn’t really want to eat, and why not take a bath - it was a hot day, the sun was scorching. He was sure that he could survive in the water longer than the crucian carp on the shore - he would soon suffocate from the air.
He threw himself into the water and sank to the very bottom. He lies there, not breathing, as if he might choke on water.
He held on for a long time and finally began to choke. He surfaced and ashore. I caught my breath a little, shook myself off - and went to the crucian carp: is it alive? And the crucian carp felt so good on the shore that he peacefully fell asleep.
The bear was angry that he could not defeat the crucian carp. He hit him with all his might with his paw, so that the crucian carp was flattened into a cake, and threw him into the water. And he fled to the taiga.
From that time on, the crucian carp became wide and flat, like a pancake. And before that he was round, like a ball - every old Evenk knows about this.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru