A man sowed turnips at the edge of the forest. The bear came and said:
- Give me part of the harvest, otherwise I will eat you!
- OK! - says the man. - Consider that the tops are yours.
Autumn came, the man removed the turnips. And the bear was right there - he came for his share. A man sold turnips in the city for good money, but the bear didn’t get anything for the tops. The clubfoot realized that he had been deceived, came to the man and said:
- You fooled me. Give me some roots next year.
“Have it your way,” the man agreed, “you’ll get the roots.”
The next spring the man sowed wheat. Autumn has come. The man harvested the wheat, threshed it, sold the grain in the city for good money, but the bear received nothing for the roots. The bear realized that he had been fooled again, got angry, came to the man and said:
- You fooled me again! Well, now beware: if you get into my yard, I’ll eat you.
The cold weather has arrived. The man's wood is all gone, he has nothing to heat the stove with and he's scared to go into the forest - a bear will kill him. He himself is freezing, and his wife is freezing, and his children are freezing. Whether you like it or not, you have to go into the forest - straight to the bear’s yard. The man harnessed his horse, grabbed an ax and rode into the forest. He drives slowly, trying not to make noise. He met a fox on the way. The redhead asks:
- Man, man, why are you driving so quietly? - So that the bear does not hear, if he hears, it will be bad for me.
The fox tells him:
“Feed me chicken and I’ll teach you how to protect yourself from a bear.” The man promised her chicken, and the fox said to him:
- Go into the forest boldly, without hiding, and chop wood so that there is more noise, so that the bear will hear and come closer. And I’ll hide in the bushes and also start a ruckus. The bear will ask who is making the noise, and you answer: the hunters are coming, they are beating wolves and bears.
As the fox said, so it happened. She hid in the bushes and raised a racket throughout the forest. And the man chops his own wood. A bear approaches him and asks:
-What is this noise? The man answers: “The hunters are coming, killing wolves and bears.” The bear got scared and asked: “Hide me in your cart and cover me with a blanket so that the hunters don’t kill me.”
The man agreed. The bear climbed into the cart, and the man covered him with a blanket. The fox runs up and asks:
-What is this in your cart? The man answers: “Log.” The fox doesn’t believe it: “If this was a log, you would tie it to the cart with a rope.”
The man took a rope, tied the bear with it, and hacked it to death with an axe. The fox demanded the promised chickens.
“Okay,” says the man, “let’s go to my house, you’ll get it there.”
A man is driving with a cart of firewood, and a fox is running ahead. Near the house, the dogs saw a fox and rushed at it. The fox barely carried off his legs. She hid in a hole, and the dogs at the hole were waiting for her to see if she would come out. The fox caught his breath and asked his eyes:
- My little eyes, my little eyes, how did you help me when I was running from death? - We showed you the way. - And you, my little ears? “We all listened to see how far the dogs were.” - And you, my little legs, little legs? “We took you away from the dogs.” - And you, my tail, my tail? “And I got under your feet when you were running away from the dogs.” The fox screamed:
- So you stopped me from running! I’ll give you to the dogs for this - and stuck my tail out of the hole. The dogs grabbed the tail and pulled out the fox. This is where the end came for her.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru