A man dug a hole in the forest and covered it with brushwood to see if he could catch any animals. A fox was running through the forest. I looked at the top - bang in the hole!
A crane was flying. He went down to look for the stern and tied his feet in brushwood; began to struggle - bang into the hole! Woe to the fox and woe to the crane. They don’t know what to do, how to get out of the hole.
The fox rushes from corner to corner - there is a column of dust in the pit; and the crane tucked one leg - and did not move, and kept pecking at the ground in front of it. They both think about how to help the trouble. The fox runs and runs and says: “I have a thousand, a thousand, a thousand thoughts!”
The crane will peck, peck and say: “But I have only one thought!” And again they will start - the fox will run, and the crane will peck. “What,” the fox thinks, “this stupid crane!” Why does he keep pecking at the ground? He doesn’t even know that the earth is thick and you can’t bite right through it.”
And she keeps circling around the pit and says: -? I have a thousand, thousand, thousand thoughts! And the crane pecks everything in front of itself and says: -? But I have one thought!
The man went to see if anyone had fallen into the hole. When the fox heard that they were coming, he began to rush even more from corner to corner and just said: “I have a thousand, thousand, thousand thoughts!”
And the crane became completely silent and stopped pecking. The fox looks - he has fallen, stretched out his legs and is not breathing. He died of fright, my dear!
The man lifted the brushwood; he sees that a fox and a crane have fallen into a hole: the fox is bustling around the hole, but the crane lies there without moving. “Oh, you,” says the man, “a vile fox!” You ate such a bird from me!
He pulled the crane out of the hole by its legs; I touched it - it was still a very warm crane; He began to scold the fox even more strongly. And the fox is running around the pit, doesn’t know which little idea to grab onto: a thousand, a thousand, a thousand, little thoughts!—?Wait a minute! - says the man. - I remember the sides for the crane! I put the bird near the hole - and towards the fox.
As soon as he turned away, the crane would spread its wings and scream: “I had only one thought! They only saw him.” And the fox with his thousand, thousand, thousand thoughts ended up on the collar of his fur coat.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru