One day a herd of deer was grazing in a meadow. A tiger attacked the herd. He fought off several deer and drove them into the taiga. He tore one to pieces, and the others ran away in fear. They could no longer find a way to the herd. And they began to graze on their own.
A bear met these deer.
The bear was already old
hunted poorly; I don’t know how much he ate, but his sides were sunken and his fur was ruffled in clumps.
The bear saw the deer and thought to himself: “What luck has struck me! I’ll take the deer. I’ll become a reindeer herder, like people are.
The bear was happy. He drove the deer to one place, closer to his den. He sat down next to him, satisfied, looking closely at the deer - which he would slaughter for the first time.
The deer saw that the bear did not touch them, they began to graze. They began to look for moss: they walked, bowing their heads to the ground. The bear looks and can’t understand - what are deer doing? As if they were listening to something... The bear got cold feet and got scared: maybe the deer were listening, was the owner coming?
A bear approached one deer and asked:
- What are you listening to?
The deer is silent and does not answer. The bear asked another, and he looked at the bear and also remained silent. It’s funny for the deer: the bear wanted to become a reindeer herder, but he doesn’t know what the deer eat!
The bear ran and ran from one deer to another, even out of breath. Says to himself:
- This is hard work!
Until the deer ate all the moss, they grazed near that den. They ate the moss and began to move further away. Again the bear was afraid: the deer might even leave completely. The bear did not know that the man was wandering after the deer. The bear began to drive his reindeer back. While he drives one to his den, the other runs off to look for moss and disappears from sight.
The bear is completely exhausted and cannot turn the reindeer back. He had to go after the deer. A bear walks and looks around - he feels sorry for the warm den, he feels sorry for the old den. But I don’t want to lose the deer either. He sighs and goes, further and further from the den...
“Oh,” he says, “it’s a difficult thing to herd deer!” If I had known, I would never have taken on anything!
The bear migrated far from the den. Then a wolf and a fox came across him.
- Hello! - They say. - What are you doing here?
“Well,” says the bear, “he became a reindeer herder.”
The fox wagged its tail and nodded its head.
“It’s high time,” he says. — My neighbor-wolf and I
who acquired deer a long time ago. Now we live well, we eat deer meat.
“I just got tired of the deer,” says the bear.
“It’s out of habit,” the fox answers. - Poor, poor neighbor! It's very difficult when you're not used to it. I don’t know how you will graze your deer in winter...
The bear became thoughtful; this is true - how can he deal with deer in winter? After all, in winter he will be drawn to hibernation, and if he falls asleep, the deer will leave. Where to look for them then?
He says to the fox and wolf:
- Help me fall the deer!
And the fox was cunning. For the sake of appearance, she became thoughtful, but she herself had only one thought - how to fool the bear. She says to the bear:
- Oh, I don’t know what to do with you! We can't handle it. Very difficult. But we need to help each other. Give me your deer. When you come in the spring, you’ll take it back.
The fox and the wolf drove the deer into the taiga.
And the bear started dancing and rejoiced. He says to himself: “I deceived these fools! They will be chasing horns all winter. And in the spring and summer I will be full: I will get all the meat!” The bear ran into the den. I went to bed for the winter.
The fox and wolf drove the herd further into the forest. The wolf killed the deer. The two deceivers were well-fed all winter.
A bear lies in a den, sucking its paw. In a dream he sees deer: they are fat and fat, dripping fat from them onto the ground. “Oh, and I’ll eat meat in the spring,” the bear thinks. The more his stomach growls from hunger, the fatter his dreams of deer.
Spring has come. The sun melted the snow. Streams ran across the ground, and the trees began to bud. The bear woke up from his hibernation and crawled out of the den. He walks through the taiga, staggering from weakness: his sides are sunken, his fur is matted.
The clubfoot comes to the fox and the wolf. And they fattened up over the winter, they became smooth and fat. The fox ran out to meet him, fussing about, as if out of joy he didn’t know where to put his dear guest, talking incessantly, not letting the bear open his mouth.
The bear asks her:
- Well, where are my deer, neighbor? The fox wailed and waved its paws:
“The trouble is with your deer, neighbor: the whole herd is gone!”
- How did it disappear? - says the bear, mouth open.
“Run away,” the fox answers.
- How did you run away like that? - the bear got angry.
- And just like that, he ran away - and that’s the end! If the owner couldn’t kill the deer, if you couldn’t handle them yourself, then we certainly couldn’t kill your reindeer!
- Where are your deer? - the bear asks, and he looks around: he sees deer skulls and bones lying everywhere.
The fox began to cry even more, shed a tear and poked the wolf in the side so hard that he roared in pain.
- And trouble happened to our deer! - the fox cries and spills. “We didn’t even save our herd!” Our deer, neighbor, have been eaten by moths!
- How - moth? - asks the bear.
- And here’s how: how the moth attacked the deer - after all, they have thick fur! “Yes, when we started eating the deer, we didn’t even have time to blink an eye before we lost all our wealth...” The fox looks at the deer bones and roars loudly. - Oh, my dears! Yes, you were so good! Yes, how I loved you, my dears!
The bear felt sorry for the fox. He began to console her: “Don’t cry, neighbor, it might still happen!” He scratched the back of his head and thought. “There’s nothing you can do,” he says, “if the moth has eaten you.” Apparently not to be
I'm a reindeer herder, a neighbor. I'll never do it again
keep the deer!
And the bear trudged into the taiga.
Since then he has not approached deer!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru