One spring, a starling built a nest on a small birch tree and hatched its chicks. When his chicks had already grown up considerably, a fox happened to run past the birch tree.
She looked up, saw a nest on the top, and in it were starlings, already quite large, and thought: “A tasty morsel, but how will you get to it?” And she decided to trick the starling. The fox says to the old starling:
“Everyone has already settled down, but I don’t even have a plow; I’ll have to cut down this birch tree to make one for myself.”
“My dear, don’t cut down the birch tree,” the starling begged, “my children are still very young, where should they go then?”
- What do I care? - says the fox. “Give me one birdling, then I won’t chop it.”
The starling thought: what to do? Apparently, the fox will really have to give the birdhouse, but which one? No matter what finger you prick, it hurts everyone. Here, out of nowhere, is a crow.
“Don’t be afraid, little bird,” she consoles him, “you can’t cut down her birch tree: she doesn’t have an ax.”
“Here’s my axe,” says the fox, waving its fluffy tail. The starling realized that the fox would not do anything with such an ax.
“Ruby,” he says.
Can you really cut down a tree with your tail?
The fox got angry at the chatty crow and decided to take revenge on her. But how to do this? She ran up the hill and sprawled on the ground. An old crow flew past a hillock and saw a dead fox lying. She sat down next to the fox and was just getting ready to peck, like the fox - peck! – and grabbed her.
- Gotcha, advisor! - speaks. - Now I will deal with you.
“Just don’t do to me what they did to my uncle,” the crow begged.
- What did they do with your uncle? - asks the fox.
- Yes, they stuck it in the wheel hub and lowered it from the mountain.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru