In ancient times, there lived a poor woman with a small son. They had nothing except sixty copper coins. One day my mother found out that they were selling bread in a neighboring ulus. She counted out twenty coins, gave them to her son and told him to buy bread.
The boy ran, climbed the hill and saw that two mischievous people were going to kill the puppy. He felt sorry for the puppy, gave the boys twenty coins and brought him to his yurt.
-Where is the bread? - asked the mother.
The son told his mother everything and showed the puppy. Mother didn't say anything.
There are forty copper coins left at home. A few days later, the mother again sent her son to buy bread. The boy just climbed the hill and saw that the same mischievous people were torturing the kitten. He felt sorry for the kitten, gave the boys money and brought it home.
- Where is the bread and where did you put the money? - asked the mother.
The son told everything and showed the rescued kitten.
His mother cried and gave him the last twenty coins so that he could buy bread. This time there were no boys on the hill, but two adults were going to kill the little lion cub. The boy gave them his last money and thereby saved the lion cub from death.
When the mother saw the lion cub, she realized where her son had spent his last money and began to cry even more bitterly. And she ordered her son to throw the lion cub into the forest.
The boy could not disobey his mother and carried the lion cub into the taiga. When they walked away a little, the lion cub said in a human voice:
- Don’t leave me, boy... Take me to my mother, she’ll do whatever you want for you, give you whatever you want. Don’t take anything, but ask her for the gold ring that she has on the middle finger of her front paw.
They walked and walked, and finally they met a lioness, so big that the boy became scared. The lioness was delighted to see her cub, began to caress him, and then asked the boy what to give him, how to pay him for saving her son.
The boy, with a trembling voice, asked for the ring from his middle finger. The lioness gave it, the boy said goodbye and went home. On the way, he was tired, hungry, and wanted to sleep. He sat down under a tree and fell asleep. When he woke up, he saw a lot of boiled juicy meat in a wooden plate next to him, and a saddled horse was grazing to the side. The boy realized that the lioness gave him not a simple ring, but a magical one. He ate his fill, put the rest in his bag, jumped on his horse and galloped towards the house. The mother saw her son on a horse and was delighted.
They built themselves a house and from that day lived well, without their previous needs.
Several years have passed. The boy grew up and got married. And then trouble happened: one morning he woke up and saw that his young wife was not nearby, and that the ring that the lioness had given him was not under his pillow. And he is no longer in the new house, but in the old dilapidated yurt, not under a beaver blanket, but under an old sheepskin... And on the shelf a mouse sits, chewing dry crust.
The guy caught the mouse with his hand and said:
“Everything is gone for me... no one pities me and I won’t feel sorry for anyone.” I'll run over the mouse.
And the mouse answers in a human voice:
“Don’t kill me, I’ll do you a good service, I’ll help you find the ring.” Your wife stole it, she now lives overseas...
The guy took with him a dog and a cat, whom he had previously saved from death, took a mouse, and they all went to look for the magic ring. They reached the sea, looked - on the other shore there was a house, smoke billowing from the chimney.
The guy sat on the dog, put the cat on its tail, and the mouse on the cat’s tail, and so they swam across the sea... The guy stayed on the shore, and the dog, cat and mouse went to the house. The cat climbed onto the roof, the mouse darted under the door and hid under the bed, and the dog walked straight into the house. The guy's wife saw the dog, took the gold ring out of her mouth and said:
- Oh, how similar this dog is to ours...
Then the cat jumped on top of the thief's head - she dropped the ring in fright - the mouse picked it up and all three rushed out of the house, to their owner.
Returning home, they all lived happily ever after: a guy with his mother, a dog, a cat and a mouse.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru