I must tell you that there have never been cats in the city of Shilde. And apparently there were a lot of mice there. Right before our eyes they climbed into the bread stall and carried away everything they could find.
No matter how the Schildburgers chased them, no matter how they starved them, the mice became more and more numerous.
At that time, a tramp was passing through the city, and in his knapsack sat a very ordinary cat. Just for fun, he picked her up on the road.
A tramp entered a tavern and saw: mice in broad daylight, not afraid of anyone, running around on tables and chairs. The tramp unzipped his knapsack and let the cat out. Instantly
she crushed a dozen mice, sits on the floor and licks her lips. The innkeeper saw this and rushed to the town hall - it was necessary to report to the city fathers what a miracle beast had appeared in Shilda. They all came to the tavern with advice and asked the tramp if he would give up his terrible mousecatcher, and they would not be stingy, they would pay him well. The tramp realized who he was dealing with and replied that such a curiosity could not be paid for with any money. But since they have such a problem with mice in Shilda, he will give them his treasure for a hundred guilders.
The Schildburgers were delighted that so little was asked of them, they shook hands and gave the tramp fifty guilders in specie, and promised to pay the rest six months after the harvest. The tramp, fearing that they might change their minds, quickly took the mousecatcher to the old barn, where the Schildburgers stored community grain for the winter and where there were most mice, and went his way.
And as soon as he left the city gates, he began to trot.
He runs and looks back every now and then - is there a chase? The Schildburgers, in their joy that they bought the ferocious mousecatcher for cheap, forgot to ask what he was eating, and to find out, they sent a messenger to the tramp after him. No matter how hard the messenger tried to catch up with the tramp, he could not - he ran away very quickly. Then the Schildburger shouted from afar:
- What is he eating?
And the tramp also answers him from afar:
- Whatever happens!
The Schildburger messenger thought: “Cattle and people.”
He was scared to death and ran back to the city of Shilda. He appeared before the council in the town hall, told what he had heard, and added: “The beast will kill all the mice, then it will attack the cattle, and then it will attack us, even though we bought it for our own money.”
Then the Schildburgers began to advise how they could get rid of the mousecatcher, and in the end they decided that it was best to kill him right away. But, unfortunately, not a single one walked among them who would even dare to approach the terrible beast.
Again they discussed this matter and came to the conclusion: it is necessary, they say, the barn where the beast sits,
The mousecatcher will burn down along with the barn... Although they had grain, this, they realized, was still a lesser evil. Otherwise, they will all have to die in a mouse attack.
As decided, so done.
The Schildburgers lined the barn with straw and set it on fire. And the cat, sensing the smoke, jumped to the next roof, and from there into the house.
So the barn burned down in vain.
The city fathers met again for council. Vv: the complexity of the issue, they first sweated for a long time in the Chamber1 for sweating, then moved to the Chamber for sweating, from there to the Jester’s Chamber, where you made the decision.
“The house in which the terrible beast Mousecat is hiding should be bought with community money and burned down together with the monster.”
No sooner said than done.
They crept up to the house where the cat was hiding, covered it with straw and set it on fire.
Meanwhile, the cat climbed onto the roof of the house, sits there and washes itself with its paw. This is a habit of this breed.
The Schildburgers, seeing how the cat raised her paw behind her head, decided that she was taking an oath - to take terrible revenge on all of them!
In desperation, one of them grabbed a spear and started to stab the cat, but it grabbed the shaft, instantly slid down it to the ground and... was gone.
Meanwhile, the fire spread first to a neighboring house, from there to another, the wind blew, and soon the entire city of Shilda was on fire. And the Schild burghers with their wives and small children had to flee from the fire further into the forest.
So the city of Shilda burned to the ground. And with him I am the famous town hall with all the buffoon chambers.
The Shildburgers themselves did not return to Shilda - after all, they saw with their own eyes how the mousecatcher swore to take terrible revenge on them. So they scattered all over the world.
Haven't you come across them?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru