In one village there lived a woman with her son. The son's name was Yotaro. He was a quiet and obedient boy: he didn’t play pranks, he didn’t play pranks, he tried to serve everyone, but he was just very slow-witted.
One day his mother said to him: “Yotaro, I’ll go to the river to rinse the clothes, and you look after the fish.” She is in the kitchen, and there is a cat sitting there.
The mother took the basket of laundry and went to the river. And Yotaro immediately ran to the kitchen, looked around and saw a dish of fish on the shelf.
“I can’t sit with my head up and look at the shelf all the time!” thought Yotaro. “I’d better put the dish on the floor.”
Yotaro did just that: he put the dish with the fish on the floor, and he sat down next to it and began to look at the fish without blinking. He forgot about the cat. And at this time the cat was creeping closer and closer to the fish. He got close to the dish itself, grabbed the fish’s head with his paw and pulled it to the floor. Yotaro didn't move. The cat ate the fish head, stole the fish side from the dish and ate it too. So little by little he ate all the fish. There was only one fish tail left on the dish.
Having eaten his fill, the cat moved aside, curled up into a ball and fell asleep. “Now I have nothing to look at!” thought Yotaro. “There is no more fish on the platter. I’ll go into the yard and take a walk for a while.”
Yotaro ran out of the house, and his mother met him with laundry. “Yotaro, what are you doing in the yard?” - asked the mother. “I told you to watch the fish.”
- I was watching. - Why did you run away from the kitchen? - And I had nothing else to look at. All that was left of the fish was the tail. “Where is all the fish?” “The cat ate it.” “What did you do?” “And I looked at the fish.” You told me to look, and I looked. “Oh, how stupid you are!” - said the mother. “How come you didn’t think of shouting “scatter” to the cat? The cat would have run away, and the fish would have remained intact.
“That’s right,” said Yotaro. “Next time I’ll be smarter.” The next morning the mother said: “Yotaro, go to the garden and see if the radish is ripe.” And at the same time, see if the caterpillars are eating the cabbage.
Yotaro immediately ran to the garden. He sees that the radish is really ripe. In some places white heads are already sticking out of the ground. But the cabbage is all eaten away. Large green caterpillars sit on its leaves.
Yotaro looked at the caterpillars and thought: “Now I know what to do. I need to drive the caterpillars away from the cabbage.” And he shouted at the top of his voice: “Scram!” Scram! The caterpillars didn’t move. “Scram!” - Yotaro shouted even louder. But no matter how he shouted, the caterpillars sat calmly on the leaves. Yotaro began to cry and ran to his mother.
- Why are you crying? - asked the mother. “How can I not cry?” Caterpillars eat our cabbage. I shouted to them “screw, scatter,” but they didn’t listen.
- How stupid you are! - said the mother. -Are a caterpillar and a cat the same thing? We had to kill them, that's all.
“That’s right,” Yotaro said. “Next time I’ll be smarter.” That same day after lunch, Yotaro said to his mother: “Today we have a performance in the village - the wrestlers have arrived.” Can I go look at them?
“It’s possible,” answered the mother. - Just don’t push yourself in the crowd and behave more politely.
Yotaro was overjoyed and ran to the village temple. There was already a performance going on in the courtyard. A plank platform was built in the middle of the courtyard, and two large, fat men were fighting on it. Spectators crowded around the platform. The whole village came running to the performance, and therefore the courtyard was very crowded and hot. All the spectators were holding round paper fans in their hands, decorated with black symbols. The fans rustled softly, and a light breeze swept across the yard.
Yotaro arrived late and found himself at the very end of the yard. He could not see anything except the backs and heads of the spectators. Having nothing else to do, he began to look at the backs of heads. And then he saw a pink, shiny, as if varnished, bald spot. In the very middle of it, on a single hair, sat a large black fly.
“The fly sits on the bald head just like a caterpillar on the cabbage,” thought Yotaro. “It will eat the last hair of the old man. We must kill it as soon as possible. It will be very polite.”
Yotaro raised his fan high and slapped the old man on the back of the head. The fly immediately flew onto the head of another neighbor. And the old man gasped and turned around. Seeing Yotaro, he shouted angrily:
- How dare you fight, you worthless boy! And, swinging, he hit Yotaro painfully on the cheek.
Yotaro began to cry, his cheek swollen and red. Crying, he got out of the crowd and ran home to his mother.
- Why are you back so early? - the mother was surprised. “Because of my politeness, they beat me,” said Yotaro. “I hit one old man on the head with a fan to kill a fly, and he got angry and beat me.
- Oh, how stupid you are! - said the mother. “Why did you slap the old man on the head?” You should have waved your fan and the fly would have flown away.
“That’s right,” Yotaro said. “Next time I’ll be smarter.” The next day there was a fire in the village. Yotaro had never seen a fire in his life and ran as fast as he could to watch the house burn. From afar, he saw a yellow flame in thick black smoke. People were running and bustling all over the street. Yotaro ran to the burning house and stopped on the other side of the street.
Suddenly there was a roar and sparks flew in all directions: it was a burning beam that had collapsed. One spark flew across the street and landed on the paper window where Yotaro was standing.
- Oh, oh! - Yotaro shouted. “We need to get rid of the spark, otherwise it will set the whole house on fire.”
He pulled a fan from his belt and began to wave it with all his might. This caused the spark to flare up even more and the paper began to smolder.
The people who lived in the house noticed that the paper on their window was smoking, got scared and ran out into the street.
Then they saw Yotaro, who was standing at the window and fanning the fire. The people were so angry with him that they snatched the fan from his hands and gave Yotaro a good beating. And the paper that caught fire was immediately doused with water.
Frightened and tearful, Yotaro trudged home. “What happened to you?” - the mother asked, seeing her tear-stained son. “They beat me again,” Yotaro said, crying. “I wanted to get a spark off the paper window so the house wouldn’t catch fire, and I started waving my fan at it, but they took the fan away from me and beat me.”
“Well, you’re stupid,” said the mother. - Is it possible to extinguish a spark with a fan? The fire must be doused with water.
“That’s true,” Yotaro replied. “Next time I’ll be smarter.” The next morning, Yotaro went for a walk. He reached the very edge of the village. And on the edge of the village there was a blacksmith shop. The door to it was always wide open, and flames blazed inside all day. Two guys were rocking back and forth in front of the fire. They hit the hot iron with long-handled hammers. When the hammer hit the iron, sparks flew in all directions.
Yotaro stopped in front of the door and looked inside. “There’s a fire again!” - Yotaro was happy. “Well, now I know what to do.” He took a full bucket of water and poured it into the fire. At first the blacksmiths just opened their mouths. And when the water hissed in the flames, they pounced on Yotaro, punched him and pushed him out into the street. He ran home crying loudly.
-What happened again? - asked the mother. “They beat me again,” Yotaro said. “I walked past the forge, and there was a fire burning and sparks were falling, just like in a fire. I wanted to pour water on the fire, as you told me, but the blacksmiths got angry and beat me.
- Well, you’re stupid! - said the mother. -After all, in a forge fire is needed for work. Haven't you seen how the blacksmiths beat iron with hammers? If you wanted to help them, you would do the same as they did.
“That’s right,” Yotaro said. “Next time I’ll be smarter.” Two days later, when Yotaro’s scratches and bruises had healed, he went for a walk again. He had just walked away from the house when he saw two guys beating each other with sticks.
“We need to help them!” - Yotaro thought. He picked up a thick, knotty stick from the ground and, as hard as he could, hit first one, then the other guy on the head.
The guys immediately stopped fighting, and both attacked Yotaro. They were older and stronger than him, and besides, there were two of them. They beat Yotaro so badly that he could barely drag himself home.
- What's wrong with you? - asked the mother. “They beat you again?” “Again,” said Yotaro. — I saw two guys on the street. They beat each other with sticks. I began to help them, and they both suddenly pounced on me and started beating me.
The mother just waved her hand: “How stupid you are, Yotaro!” After all, here it was necessary not to help, but to separate. “That’s right,” said Yotaro. “Next time I’ll be smarter.” For seven days after that, Yotaro sat at home, afraid to go outside. But on the eighth I couldn’t resist and went for a walk.
He went out into the street and saw two dogs fighting in the middle of the road. Yotaro stopped and shouted: “Stop fighting!” The dogs, of course, did not listen to him. Then Yotaro ran up to them, grabbed them both by the tails and began to pull them in different directions. The dogs became even more furious, growled and grabbed poor Yotaro’s calves. If passers-by had not come to help, the dogs would have torn him to shreds.
Yotaro returned to his mother barely alive. The mother looked at him and said nothing more. Teaching a fool is only wasting time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru