The donkey did not want to work, and he decided to go to Mecca. “I’ll go to Mecca, bow to the tomb of Mohammed, become a Khoja, then no one will force me to work,” thought the donkey. And he went to Mecca.
He walked and walked and ran into a duval, and a rooster sat on the duval and shouted “ku-ka-re-ku!”
- Hey, donkey, where are you going? - asked the rooster.
“I’m going to Mecca to bow to the coffin of Mohammed, I want to become a khoja, so that I never have to work again,” answered the donkey.
- Oh! And I also want to go to Mecca! Won't you take me with you? - said the rooster.
“Let’s go,” said the donkey. “It’s better to travel together than alone.” And the donkey and the rooster went together to Mecca.
They walked and walked and they met a goat.
- Oh, friends, where are you going? - asked the goat.
“We are going to Mecca to bow to the coffin of Mohammed, we want to become a hodja and never work,” said the donkey and the rooster.
- Ooo! And I want to go to Mecca! Take me with you! - asked the goat.
- Let's go! - said the donkey and the rooster. “It’s better to travel with three than two.” The donkey, the rooster and the goat moved on. They walked and walked and met a mole.
- Hey, friends, where are you going? - the mole asked them.
“We are going to Mecca to bow to the coffin of Mohammed, we want to become a hodja and never work,” said the donkey, the rooster and the goat.
- Oh! And I want to go to Mecca! Take me with you!” asked the mole.
- Let's go! - said the donkey, the goat and the rooster. “It’s better to travel with four than three.”
They walked and walked and were tired; night came.
“It’s time for us to rest,” said the donkey. “Let’s climb this hill and spend the night.” The donkey, the goat, the rooster and the mole climbed up the hill and went to bed.
At night, four hungry wolves came running, sensed that someone was lying on the hill, and stopped.
“Come on, whichever of us is younger, climb the hill and see who lies there,” said the old wolf.
The young wolf began to climb the hill. Even from a distance he recognized the donkey.
“If I come back now and say that a donkey is sleeping here, they won’t believe me, they will say that I was cowardly and did not get to the top,” thought the young wolf. “If I sneak up on the donkey, tear off its tail, then I will have proof.”
And, having climbed the hill, the wolf began to quietly creep up to the donkey.
The donkey did not sleep and saw the wolf sneaking, but pretended to be asleep. When the wolf got close to the donkey, he quickly raised his hind leg and firmly squeezed the wolf's head between his legs.
The wolf howled in fear. The mole, rooster and goat woke up. The mole quickly began to rake the ground to dig a hole for himself and hide. The rooster flew to the top of the hill and crowed at the top of his lungs. And the goat ran away and hit the wolf in the side with its horns.
In pain, the wolf jerked as hard as he could, pulled out his head, which was pinched by the donkey’s legs, and without looking back began to run down the hill.
Having reached his comrades, he shouted:
- Quickly get away from here! Let's run! They are no joke!
- Who are they? - asked the old wolf.
“I don’t know how to say it... One must have been a blacksmith, he squeezed my head with pincers so hard that it cracked.” The other one was apparently a hammerman; he hit me so hard that he almost knocked the wind out of me. The third, of course, is a mullah - he climbed onto the dais and immediately began the funeral service. And the fourth quickly began to dig a grave for me. I don’t know how I stayed alive.
Hearing this, the wolves got scared and started running in different directions.
- Well, if they already consider me a mullah, why should I go to Mecca? - said the rooster, sitting high on the hill.
- Why should I go to Mecca? - the mole grumbled, hiding in a dug hole.
“Three are better than two,” said the goat, “I don’t want to go to Mecca either.”
- No, four of us are better than three of us! - the donkey shouted hastily, looking towards the runaway wolves.
So the donkey did not go to Mecca and did not become a hodja.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru