Two friends were walking through the forest and suddenly they heard a bird singing and squawking. The first one said:
- Listen, buddy, how well this bird sings for me.
“She sings not for you, but for me,” the other objected.
- No matter how it is! She will sing for such a fool.
- You yourself are a fool! She's the one singing for me.
Word for word, they quarreled, and after quarreling, they fought. When the friends returned home, the first went straight to the judge and told him how he had a fight with a friend, and he beat him. I told him everything as it was and asked:
- Mister Judge! Protect me, punish this brawler?! I will thank you. This evening I will give you an excellent ox if you say that my unfaithful friend is wrong.
- Don't worry? - the judge answered. - Your comrade will lose the case. Go home and bring the ox. Come to court early in the morning.
The guy cheered up and went home, muttering to himself: “I’ll show you for whom the bird sang!”
A little time passed and a second friend appeared before the judge:
- Fair judge! Your Grace! - So and so. ..
And he told the judge in detail how he and his friend were walking through the forest, how they heard a bird singing for him, and his friend argued that she was singing for him, how they quarreled and fought. I laid out everything in order.
- Take my side, Mr. Judge, and punish this brawler and fool. If you give me your word that I will win the case, I will give you a fatted boar this evening.
- Okay, good man! - the judge answered. “I promise you that your friend will lose the case.” Now you go home and bring the boar, and come to court early in the morning. At night, both friends secretly delivered their gifts to the judge and calmly returned home: each thought that they would win the case and teach the other a lesson.
Early in the morning at the appointed hour, both friends came to the judge. And the judge pretended that he was seeing them for the first time and asked;
-What do you want? Why did you come?
- Fair judge! So and so.
And each told in full detail what brought them to court.
“We ask you, Mr. Judge, to judge fairly for whom the bird sang.”
- My friends! - the judge told them. “First, promise me to make peace, as all reasonable people do, and then I’ll tell you for whom the bird sang.” Do you agree?
- We agree, Mr. Judge! Just tell us quickly, for whom did the bird sing?
“You have both been deceived, dear friends.”
The bird you heard singing in the forest did not sing for you.
- And for whom, Mr. Judge?
“The bird sang for me, for your wise and fair judge.”
- Thank you, your grace! - the plaintiffs answered and the reconciled ones went home.
On the way, word by word, they returned to their argument and agreed that the bird in the forest really sang for Mr. Judge, since he received an ox and a boar as a gift.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru