Two brothers once conspired to fool a hedgehog and a hare. At the edge of the forest there was a deep ditch. The hedgehogs stood at different ends of the ditch, and then the hedgehog that stood at this end said to the hare:
- Hey, oblique! They say you run fast, but I’ll probably outrun you.
- Where are you going? Let them tear off my mustache if I believe this!
– What is there to believe or not to believe! Let's bet. If you overtake me, you will tear ten needles out of my fur coat, and if I overtake you, I will tear out ten hairs from your mustache. Well, is it going?
- It's coming! I just feel sorry for your fur coat.
- And for me - your mustache. And now this: you, hare, are taller, so you should run along the edge of the ditch, and I should run along the bottom.
OK. The hare ran like the wind and didn’t even look back whether the hedgehog was running after him or not. He runs to the other end, and the hedgehog is already sitting there.
-Where have you gone? - he says to the hare. - I'm frozen, waiting for you.
- Oh, hedgehog, I was unlucky this time, let's run back again.
“So be it,” the hedgehog agreed, “let’s run!” The hare ran faster than before. And at the other end of the ditch the hedgehog is already waiting for him.
- I'm going to freeze completely because of you! - he says to the hare. - Put on your mustache!
“Wait, hedgehog, let’s run one more time, and then whatever happens!”
The hedgehog agreed. The hare ran faster than the wind. And at the other end of the ditch the hedgehog is already waiting for him.
- Enough! Put up your mustache, I won’t run a race with you anymore.
What can you do! I had to give the hare a mustache. The hedgehog pulled out ten hairs from the hare's whiskers, stuck five into his brother's lip, and five into himself. Since then, hedgehogs have small antennae sticking out on their lips.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru