Once the hawks gathered for a big gathering and started a strong fight among themselves. There were no old hawks in that fight, only young ones. A lot of them came together, they had to choose a voyt. They consulted among themselves: there is, they say, one hawk among us, so handsome and also very competent, and they decided that he would manage them well, since he is a learned man.
Until he was appointed voyat, he was a scientist and wise, but when he was chosen, he began to stand for the rich, and did not care about the poor at all.
As long as it was possible, the poor endured and endured, and there were much more poor than rich. So they filed a petition in court, they are calling him to account, they want to throw him out. The court decided: to correct his position until the one-year deadline expires.
But the poor can’t bear to endure him any longer, he’s treating them very unfairly, and there’s still a long way to go. We thought about it and decided:
- Why are we going to put up with him? If we beat him. he himself will leave.
They caught him, beat him well, and he left.
While he was weak, he sat quietly, but after recovering a little, he moved away.
He heard that the crows did not have a gate, he began to visit them and crawled into the gates. At first, as soon as he was chosen, he managed well; what they told him, he did, and what he said, they did.
Shrikes settled in the forest with the crows. Shrikes, although a small bird, are very harmful, they began to bother the crows painfully, the crows began to complain:
- What should we do with them? And Voight says:
- Since they are doing dirty tricks on you, you must defend yourself. The crows got angry with him for such words, convened a council, threw him out and threatened him:
“If you don’t leave on your own, we’ll kill you!” He came home and told his wife about it; When his wife heard it, she began to scold and reproach him:
“If the hawks didn’t finish you off, the crows will.” Can't you get by without being a voyt? He thought and thought, he became scared, and said:
“If they catch you, they’ll kill you.” And why do I need this? He took it and left the Voits. But he no longer wanted to go to his village. They laughed at him a lot there, and he was ashamed. And he says:
“I need to become a voist again.”
So he flies around the world, listens, where there is no sound, in which flock. He heard from somewhere that there were no starlings. He thinks: “It’s no good for me to ask for a war with the starlings myself, but there’s no way I can appease them.” He began to follow them: wherever they fly, he will get close to them and listen.
The berries ripened, starlings began to fly in flocks and feed on berries in orchards, vegetable gardens and clearings where cherries grow. People got tired of this - they began to beat the starlings with sticks, and only then shoot at them. It is impossible for the starlings to tolerate this, and a great number of them flocked to the meeting to choose a leader. They gathered in the forest, talking. They consult with each other, and he flies from oak to oak and gets closer to them: he sees them well, but they do not see him. They consult about their business, and he listens to everything, whether the conversation suddenly comes up about howling. He sat down close to them, and they began to say:
“If we had come across someone who was a stranger and would rule well, then we would have chosen the stranger too.”
Then he flew even closer, sat down on a tree nearby and asked:
—What are you guys consulting about here, brothers?
“Oh,” they say, “such a misfortune happened to us!” They beat us everywhere, and there is no one who could protect us!
“You are doing badly because you don’t have a senior officer who could take care of you.” “You must,” he says, “choose a voyat, let him rack his brains so that you feel good.” If you appoint one of your own as a voyage, they will not be afraid of him because he is small.
The starlings thought about it and said:
- Or maybe we would put you in, and we would be afraid of you?
“Well,” he says, “choose a council, if all the advisers agree on it, then I can.” They chose a council, and the council decides:
- Let there be a hawk! And he says:
“I agree to be a voyt, but just give me one of you every day for food, and if you don’t give, then a man with a stick will appear and kill a whole hundred of you, and for me - one at a time, but fewer of you will die.”
The starlings agreed to this. And when he became a voyt, he says:
- If you want not to be beaten, then sit at home.
They didn’t like this login the first time, but what should they do?
The time to be his leader had passed, he did not do anything good to the starlings, but killed so many of them that only ninety remained in the flock.
What are the starlings supposed to do here? The starlings decided to throw him off and said:
“If he stays for another year, then not one of us will remain.”
They called him, they see that it is not so easy to throw him off. Then we thought and decided:
“If you don’t kill him, there’s no way to reset him.” They all came together, surrounded him in a circle, and although they are small birds, their beaks are sharp, and let’s peck him; He began to swear and swear that he would never be a Voyt again. And the end.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru