One farmer sowed wheat. When the wheat began to ripen, a bear began to wander into the field. He went into the wheat, trampled it and went to bed.
The farmer saw all this, but was powerless to do anything.
The wheat is ripe. The farmer squeezed it, carried it to the threshing floor, piled it up, and threshed it. Then he winnowed it, sifted it and prepared it for grinding. Here a bear appeared and said to the farmer:
- Hello, companion! The farmer was surprised and said:
- Hello, but what kind of companion are you for me? The bear got angry and shouted:
“You still don’t know that I’m your companion?”
“How can I know if you didn’t work with me?”
The bear took the farmer to the place where he always slept, lay down on his side and said: “I lay here every day and drove away the sparrows, otherwise there wouldn’t be a single grain left of your wheat now!”
The farmer realized that you couldn’t get rid of the parasite bear, and said:
- Okay, let's go, let's divide the wheat.
They came to the threshing floor. The farmer divided the wheat into two equal parts and said to the bear:
- Give me a bag, I’ll fill you with your share!
“I don’t have a bag,” said the bear.
“If so, go to my house and bring a bag for you and me.”
- Go yourself! - said the bear. “I’ll stay to guard the wheat.”
The farmer went home and said to his wife:
- A bear came to me and asked for half of our wheat. If we don't do something, we'll lose half the harvest.
The wife thought and said:
“You go to the bear, and I’ll come later and scare him.”
The farmer took two bags and went to the threshing floor. Seeing the bear digging a hole, he asked:
- Why are you doing this?
“I’ll pour my share of the wheat here,” answered the bear.
At this time, the farmer’s wife gathered the village children, loaded a bag of ashes on a donkey and headed to the threshing floor.
When they all approached the threshing floor, the woman said to the children:
- Shout at the top of your lungs! - and she herself began to hit the bag of ashes with a stick so much that the dust rose to the sky.
The bear saw this, got very scared and hid in the hole he had dug.
The woman screamed loudly:
- Hey, farmer, have you seen a bear?
- Why do you need a bear?
“The padishah’s daughter is sick; only bear fat can cure her.” Hearing this, the bear said to the farmer:
- Hey, companion, don't talk about me!
“They will find you without me, because your ears are visible from the hole,” said the farmer.
“Take a sharp sickle and cut off my ears,” said the bear. The farmer cut off the bear’s ears, and the woman screamed again:
- Hey, farmer, have you seen last year’s bear?
“No,” answered the farmer. - Why are you deceiving! You can see his head!
- Oh, I won’t let you cut off your head! - the bear roared, looking at the farmer standing with a sickle in his hand.
He jumped out of the hole and started running with a roar. Since then, the bear never came to the farmer’s field again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru