One evening in a large Indian house called a maloka, it became so hot and stuffy because the people had built a huge fire there that they came out of the maloka and began to hang up hammocks to sleep in the open air. A jaguar was roaming not far from that house. Then he met rain and asked him:
- Hey buddy, what are you doing here?
“Well, I want to scare people: they, you see, are going to camp out in the open air - so let them go into the house,” the jaguar answers.
And the rain says to him:
- But, buddy, you know that people are not afraid of you.
And the jaguar responded:
- They’re still so afraid. Do you want to make sure? So I’ll go up to the maloka and sing. And listen to what people say.
And the rain, settling down next to the people, prepared to listen. The jaguar growled fiercely: Urru-ru-uh! Urru-ru-uh!
And people say:
— Good leather for my bag is running around in the jungle. The jaguar growled again: Urru-ru-uh! Urru-ru-uh! The rain listened. And people say:
- Tomorrow we'll shoot the jaguar.
Then the rain began to meet the jaguar. And the jaguar asks him:
- Well, buddy, what did people say?
“Nothing, nothing special,” answers the rain. And the jaguar responded:
- You, godfather, seem to be scared yourself? Then the rain answered him:
“I wasn’t at all scared.” And people said that your leather would be good for their bags. And they added: “Tomorrow we’ll shoot the jaguar.” No, they are not afraid of you. But for me, that’s for sure.
But the jaguar stands his ground, and that’s it.
- No, they are not afraid of you!
“They are afraid, they are afraid,” says the rain. - Do you want to check? Now I’ll burst forth, and we’ll see who’s right—then you won’t say that people aren’t afraid of me.
The rain is preparing to bring down its torrents and says to the jaguar:
- So, godfather, now it’s your turn to go and listen to what people have to say.
The jaguar approached the house and sat down next to it. It started to rain. The sky immediately darkened. The wind rose. And people will shout:
- It's raining, it's starting to rain!
And the rain began to fall harder. It was such a terrible downpour that people took off their hammocks and ran into the house. The jaguar caught up with the rain. And when he caught up, he asked:
- Well, godfather? You see now that people are afraid of me, not you.
It still is today. It's the rain that scares us, not the jaguar.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru