In one small village there lived a poor peasant. And he had a cat and a dog, which he loved very much. So they lived amicably and happily for many years in a row.
But then one day the cat and dog sensed some vague anxiety. They realized that their serene happiness would soon come to an end. And the cause of this concern was simply a pumpkin that the peasant planted in front of the house. The pumpkin was a great success - it quickly filled with ripeness. But she did not please either the cat or the dog. And all because they feared for the life of their master. They got it into their heads that their owner would die as soon as the pumpkin ripened. And after the death of the owner, they will probably have a hard time. “The death of a master is grief for a servant,” says an old proverb. So they decided to save the owner, and at the same time ease their fate. But how? They thought and thought and finally remembered another proverb: “If you want to get rid of something, you have to start from the root.” And they decided to uproot the pumpkin. They decided to make a decision, but it was a little scary to take on the matter - well, how would the owner catch them at the crime scene. Then they will probably be in trouble. When the owner was fierce, he did not spare his wife if she contradicted him! And they kept waiting. We just couldn’t muster up the courage.
However, time passed. The more beautiful the pumpkin became, the more the four-legged friends suffered! It seemed to them that the death of the owner was just around the corner and that today or tomorrow they would become homeless orphans. But still, fear of the owner prevented them from fulfilling their plans, and they, as if restless, wandered around the house from corner to corner.
Just at that time the owner fell ill. The cat reacted to this rather indifferently, and the dog, with its characteristic canine sensitivity, completely lost peace. She decided that she could not hesitate any longer, and went to the cat.
The cat listened to the dog and said:
- Why are you fussing? Come what may! Let's trust fate!
But the dog doesn’t even want to listen.
“Don’t you feel sorry for the owner,” he says. “We won’t die from the blows of his stick.” If the owner is gone, then we have nothing to do in the world.
In the end she managed to convince the cat. And the two of them pulled out the unfortunate pumpkin.
A day or two later, the owner recovered and, when he left the house, he immediately discovered that there was no trace of the pumpkin.
-Where did the pumpkin go? – he rushed to his wife.
- Of course! “They tormented her cat and dog,” she answered.
Trembling with rage, the owner ordered the culprits to be brought to him. The dog appeared immediately, and the owner beat him half to death. But the cunning cat hid and thereby escaped punishment.
Time passed, the owner relented and called the cat and dog again. This time the cat was quick to appear first. But the dog did not forget the previous insult, rushed after the cat and with the words “come what may, let’s trust fate,” let’s bite it, so that the cat barely carried off its legs.
Since then, the cat and dog have become fierce enemies, and Arakanese now never plant pumpkins near their houses.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru