One day an echinoderm hedgehog was walking across a field and saw a molehill. He hears a little baby rummaging underground. The echinoderm hedgehog called the little mole:
- Get out, godfather, let's talk. The little one crawled out, covered herself in dirt, and ran to the hedgehog to talk.
“I looked,” says the echinoderm hedgehog, “what kind of worker you are, and I thought of one thing.”
- What are you planning? - asks the little one.
- Good job. But I just don’t know whether you’ll agree to it or not.
“If it’s good for both of us, why not agree?” - says the little one.
“Let’s work together,” says the echinoderm hedgehog. - You plow the field, I will harrow it and sow it. And we will divide the wheat equally.
- I agree, little hedgehog. If we work together, things will get better for us. I know how to plow, but I don’t know how to harrow - because I don’t have needles. And you have needles, but you don’t have such strong legs and claws as I do. We are not workers without each other, but if we start working together and dividing everything equally, it will be good for us.
“Well, then, we’ve reached an agreement,” says the echinoderm hedgehog. “Now spit on your paws and get started.”
The little one got to work. She plowed one day, plowed another, plowed the field. The turn came for the hedgehog. He curled up into a ball and rolled across the arable land. He rode for a day, rode for two, harrowed the arable land with his sharp needles and sowed wheat.
The year turned out to be fruitful. The wheat sprouted wildly, burst into heavy ears, and filled with vigorous grain—it’s a delight to look at.
The time has come to harvest. They harvested the wheat, threshed it, and began dividing it.
The echinoderm hedgehog took a measure, poured wheat into it flush with the edges and said:
- This is for me!
Then he poured the measure up to half and gave it to the little one:
- And this is for you!
- Why do you take the full measure for yourself, and give me half? - asks the little one.
“Because my work is harder than yours,” the echinoderm hedgehog answers. “I was harrowing the arable land, I broke off all my needles - not a single one was left intact.”
“I was plowing and broke all my claws,” argues the little one. - Judging by justice, I am owed more than you.
Word for word, the mole and the hedgehog had a fight, fought, grabbed each other by the throat.
At that time, a fox passed by the godfather. She heard a noise and came running to watch the fight. Did the fox cheat? the fighters sat down to resolve their dispute. She judges herself, looks at the wheat herself.
The echinoderm hedgehog began to tell the fox how much torment he endured while harrowing the arable land, and the little one showed her claws - all broken.
The fox listened to them, grinned slyly in his mustache and said:
“I see you both did a good job.” And in order not to offend anyone, I will judge you with righteous judgment. As I judge, so it will be. Do you agree?
“We agree,” the echinoderm hedgehog and the little mole answer.
“I see,” says the sly fox, “that you have threshed ten measures of wheat, but straw doesn’t count.” Let the echinoderm hedgehog take the straw to make him feel a little better. He, poor fellow, was completely exhausted and broke his needles. He will lay straws for himself and sleep on soft ones. The little mole is entitled to one measure of wheat. And for the sister fox there will be nine measures of wheat left to grind at the water mill. So I judged you truthfully!
The echinoderm hedgehog listens to the fox, and thinks: “Yes, that’s true! Straight, like a rope in a bag.”
The cunning fox left with a full load of wheat. Here the little one says to the hedgehog:
- Do you see, godfather hedgehog, what came out of our quarrel?
If we divided the wheat equally, we would be full all year. And now they have nothing to do with it.
The echinoderm hedgehog sighed.
“It turns out so,” he says. “What people say is true: “Two fight and the third gets rich.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru