One Schildburger heard that no one should be burdened with more than he can carry, and from then on he never loaded his mare. No, he threw the sack of flour onto his shoulders and only after that got on his horse and rode straight home from the mill. I thought it would be easier for the mare. So he was driving along the road and saw that there was a tree standing at the very border of Schild’s lands. And a cuckoo sits on a tree. Sits and crows. And on the other side of the border there is another tree. And a cuckoo is also sitting on it, but it’s someone else’s, and it’s also cuckooing.
Our Schildburger listened, listened, and suddenly noticed that someone else's cuckoo had begun to cuckoo the Schild's name. He got angry here, jumped off his horse, climbed a tree and let his cuckoo help someone else's cuckoo crow.
Meanwhile, a wolf was running nearby. He saw the mare standing unattended, attacked her and devoured her. And the Shildburger still sat upstairs and crowed someone else’s cuckoo - saving the honor of the city of Shilda. And so, in the end, he got the hang of cooing that the vagrant bird first fell silent and then flew away completely. I couldn’t stand it, so I gave up.
The Schildburger, satisfied, came down from the tree, but there was no mare - only bones were lying around. So he had to get home on his own two feet with a bag of flour.
However, having returned to Shilda, he told the mayor how he saved the honor and dignity of all the inhabitants of the city and cuckooed someone else’s cuckoo, but bad luck - in the meantime, a wolf killed his mare.
Having heard such news, the city mayor and the entire Schild council considered this to be a great injustice: how could it be that a man cared about the honor of the entire Schild community - and suffered such damage! He needs to show his gratitude and buy a horse.
So they did.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru