One day the eagle said to the hawk and magpie: “Let’s hunt together.” And so the eagle, the hawk and the magpie went hunting. Before sunset they caught a lot of game, about three hundred.
“Now let’s divide the spoils,” said the eagle. - Magpie, divide everything equally between the three.
- No, eagle, where am I supposed to go! Do it yourself, or let the hawk do it.
“Well, it’s my pleasure,” said the hawk.
He put all the game into three piles, so identical that it didn’t matter which one to take.
“Hawk,” asked the eagle, “where is my part?”
- Eagle, take any of the three.
- Hawk, you are stupid. I'll teach you how to divide!
And with one blow of its beak the eagle killed the hawk. Then he said to the magpie:
“Now, magpie, let’s divide the spoils between the two of us.” Divide everything equally into two parts.
- No, eagle, we’ll divide it into three parts. One is for you because you have such a beak, and the other two are also for you, because you have such claws.
- Magpie, no one knows how to divide better than you. And for your troubles, take this little skinny tit, tough as a tree.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru