A long time ago there lived a husband and wife, and they had three daughters. One day the husband went to the field to plow for the whole day and said to his wife:
- Bake some cakes and send them to me and my daughter.
The wife baked some cakes and sent the eldest daughter to her father.
The girl went to the arable land, but did not know the way. She walked and walked and came to an intersection. She stopped and thought:
"Which way should I go?"
A bird flew in and chirped:
- Tweet-chirp, chirp-chirp! Go, sister, to the right.
And on the other side there was a wolf lurking. He lies behind a bush and grumbles:
- Hur-hur, girl, go to the left!
The girl went to the left. I walked a little and saw a hut. She went into this hut, and here the wolf was waiting for her. He took her cakes from the girl, ate them, and lowered the girl into deep underground.
“Sit,” he says, “until I let you out!”
The father returned home hungry in the evening and asked:
- Why didn’t they bring me food?
And his wife answers him:
“I sent you some cakes; my eldest daughter took them, but hasn’t returned home yet.”
They waited and waited for the girl; Everyone was waiting - mother, father, and sisters - but they never came.
“Well,” they think, “maybe I spent the night with a friend.”
The next day the father again got ready to go to the arable land and said to his wife:
- Look, today they brought me something to eat early and tell my daughter not to visit her friends on the way, but to come straight to me!
The wife baked cakes again and sent them to her husband and middle daughter.
The girl reached the intersection, stopped and doesn’t know where to go next.
A bird flew in and chirped:
- Tweet, chirp, chirp, sister! Go to the right!
And the wolf on the other side grumbles from behind the bushes:
- Hur-hur, girl, go to the left!
The girl listened to him, went to the left, and the wolf ran in the same direction.
The girl walked a little and came across a hut. She went into the hut. And here the wolf is already waiting for her. He took the cakes from the girl, ate them, and locked the girl underground.
The girl looks, and her older sister is sitting there. She asks her:
- Why are you sitting here?
- The wolf put me down. How did you get here yourself?
- And the wolf lured me.
The girls are sitting underground, crying, they don’t know what to do, they can’t figure it out.
The father returned home in the evening and began to scold his wife, why she did not send him food.
“Why,” the wife answers, “I sent my second daughter to you at noon.”
“You sent it, but she didn’t come!”
“That’s how stupid our daughters are: instead of bringing food to their father’s arable land, they run off to their girlfriends and forget about everything!”
On the third day, the third daughter, the youngest, brought cakes to her father.
“Don’t go anywhere, daughter,” her mother tells her, “go straight to your father, otherwise he’ll work hungry all day again!”
“I won’t go anywhere,” the daughter answers.
She went, and the wolf was already waiting in the bushes at the crossroads. As she stopped and began to think about where she should go next, the wolf began:
- Hur-hur, girl, go to the left!
The bird sings:
- Tweet-chirp, sister, go to the right!
And the wolf:
- Hur-hur, girl, go to the left!
The girl listened, listened and went left. She came to the wolf's hut, and, like both sisters, she ended up in a deep, dark underground.
The sisters are sitting, waiting for what will happen next. The older ones are grieving and crying, and the younger one calms them down.
“It’s okay,” he says, “don’t be afraid, sisters, somehow we’ll escape from here!”
And the wolf began to boil resin in a cauldron. As the tar boiled, he released his older sister from underground and said:
- Look: I’ll throw a ring into this cauldron. If you manage to get it and don’t scald your hands, I’ll let you out of hiding!
He said and ran into the forest.
The girl tried to get the ring, but she couldn’t get it, only scalding her hands with the resin.
The wolf came running and said:
- Show me your hands!
The girl showed her hands, and her hands were scalded with resin.
The wolf hid her underground again.
The next day he released his middle sister and ordered her to get a ring from the boiling resin. The middle sister couldn’t even get the ring; she only scalded her hands with resin. The wolf returned, looked at her hands and threw her underground again.
On the third day, the wolf boiled resin in a cauldron, released his younger sister from hiding and said:
- Get me a ring, but be careful not to scald your hands!
He said and ran into the forest.
The younger sister was quick-witted. She took a stick and used the stick to take out a ring from the resin.
A wolf came running from the forest. He sees that the girl took out the ring without scalding her hands. He tells her:
- Well, now you will be the mistress of my house!
She began to live in the wolf's hut. And the older sisters are sitting underground. The younger sister thinks all the time:
“How can I free myself and free my sisters?..”
I thought and thought and came up with an idea. She weaved a large basket from the branches and said to the wolf:
“I’ll put some gifts in this basket, and you take it to our father and mother tomorrow.” Be careful not to open the basket on the way! I'll climb onto the roof and keep an eye on you!
The wolf agreed.
“Okay,” he says, “to have it your way!”
The girl took a sheaf of straw, dressed it in her clothes, tied it with her scarf and placed the straw doll on the roof. And she and her sisters climbed into the basket.
“Oh, sister, we’re scared!” the elders say.
“Don’t be afraid,” the younger one answers. “The wolf won’t guess that we’re sitting in the basket!”
- Well, what if he wants to open the basket?..
- But I won’t let him!
Then a wolf came running from the forest, grabbed the basket and carried it away.
He carried and carried - and, through the forest and through the swamp, he was tired. He put the basket on the ground and grumbled to himself:
“We need to see what the girl put in this basket.” It's too heavy!
And the girl from the basket shouts:
- Don’t open the basket, I’m sitting on the roof - I see everything!
“Look, she’s so sharp-sighted! She sees far,” thought the wolf.
He put the basket on his back and ran on. He ran through the swamp, stopped and said:
- Well, now she probably won’t see! Let me see what's in this basket.
And the girl again:
- I see you, I see you! Don't open the basket - carry on!
The wolf grabbed the basket and ran to the house where the girls' father and mother lived. He came running, put the basket by the porch, howled loudly and ran into the forest.
Father and mother came out into the yard and saw a large basket standing by the porch. They opened it, and their three daughters jumped out. That's why everyone was happy! The girls began to tell how they got to the wolf, how they ran away from him.
And the wolf ran into his hut and saw that the girl was still standing on the roof. He began to call her, ordered her to come down, but she did not answer anything, did not come down to him.
The wolf got angry, took a long pole, and began to push the straw doll. She fell right on the wolf's head. It was only then that he realized how the girl had outwitted him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru