Once upon a time there lived a magpie, and she had a nest in an aspen tree. There were seven green eggs in that nest. One day a fox approached the aspen tree and asked:
- Give me one egg, forty. I'll eat it.
- I won’t give it to you for anything! - shouted the magpie.
“And if that’s the case, I’ll run away and break your aspen tree and send the dust flying!”
The magpie got scared and gave the cheat one egg. The fox got into the habit of going to the magpie every day and each time received a green magpie egg. There is only one egg left in the nest. The magpie became sad and began to cry. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the mouse jumps out.
- Why are you crying? - she asks the magpie.
- How can you not cry? - answers the magpie. “The fox got into the habit of coming to me and begging for eggs.” “If you don’t give it,” he says, “I’ll run away and break your aspen and let the dust fly!” I ate all the eggs, the last one was left.
“Don’t give the fox the egg,” advises the mouse. “If he threatens to break the aspen tree and let the dust fly, say to this: “Where are your horns to break the aspen tree? Where are you?”
Do you have hooves to throw off dust?” The fox will ask who taught you to answer like that, and you say: “I thought about it myself, I thought about it, and I came up with it.”
The mouse slipped into the hole, and then the fox appeared.
- Give me the egg, magpie, I’ll eat it! she demanded.
- I won’t give it up for anything!
“And if that’s the case, I’ll run away and break your aspen tree and send the dust flying!”
- Where do you have the horns to break the aspen tree? Where are your hooves to kick up dust? - said the magpie.
-Who taught you to answer like that? Speak! - the fox demanded.
“I thought and thought and came up with it.”
- But if you don’t tell the truth, I’ll use all my thirteen tricks and eat you alive! - the fox threatened.
The magpie got scared and pointed to the hole in which the mouse had hidden. The fox sat down by the hole and clicked the mouse.
“I don’t have time, fox,” answered the mouse, “I clear the wheat from the chaff.”
The fox paused a little and called the mouse again. She stuck her head out.
“If your head is so pretty, I can imagine what your chest is like!” - the fox sang touchingly. The mouse stuck out up to its chest.
- Nice breast! And what a tail! The mouse stuck out its tail.
- What a ponytail! - exclaimed the fox. - The pretty mouse has an unusual gait, right?
A mouse jumped out of the hole and was ready to walk slowly, but it ended up in the fox’s mouth. The mouse said:
- I took yours. Just know: if you eat me with your jaws closed, you won’t feel any taste. It’s a different matter when you open your mouth wider!
The fox is a well-known gourmet! She opened her mouth, and the mouse jumped out of there and was like that!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru