One day many guests came to the leopard. They ate, had fun, and when night came, the leopard saw that he could not accommodate all the guests. There is nothing for them to sleep on.
“I’ll go to the lion,” I thought, “I’ll borrow from him the skin of a buffalo, which he killed the day before yesterday while hunting.” And he went.
- Listen, Leo, I have many guests in my house, but there is nothing to accommodate them. Would you lend me a buffalo hide?
“Take it,” answered the lion, “just return it tomorrow morning.”
- I’ll definitely return it.
In the morning, the leopard's guests left, and he was just about to take the skin to the lion, but then the hyena came.
- Dear leopard, today is my holiday and guests will come. Please lend me this buffalo skin.
- Do you know who is the owner of this skin?
- I know, lion.
- That's it. No, I can't give you the skin. I know your habits, you will definitely ruin it.
- What are you, what are you! - the hyena reassured him. - After all, the skin belongs to the lion himself! Am I really going to allow any harm to come to him?
The leopard believed and gave the skin.
The next day, the hyena's guests left, and there was no food left in the house. The hungry hyena chewed off a piece of the skin. Then another piece and another... Everyone knows how voracious hyenas are: they eat everything that can be even the slightest bit edible.
So the hyena ate the entire skin.
Meanwhile, the lion was tired of waiting for the skin. “What is this? - he thinks. - The leopard promised to return the skin the next day, two days have passed, and still no skin.”
He left the house and shouted to the whole savannah:
- Give it back! Give it back! The leopard got scared and ran towards the hyena.
-Where is the skin?
-No skin, dear leopard, I ate it.
-What have you done! Then pay the lion something for it.
-How will I pay? I have nothing.
-And I don’t have one. What should we do now?
They thought and thought, but came up with nothing. So since then the lion has been walking around the savannah, and keeps demanding that the buffalo skin be returned to him, and is very angry:
- Give it back! Give it back! And the leopard and hyena, hearing his menacing voice, run away and hide.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru