Once upon a time there lived a wandering lama. He walked from village to village, performed prayer services and robbed dark people. He got tired of wandering around the world, and he decided to build himself a khura (Lamaist monastery) on the banks of the Kara-Sug. “Let the believers come to me,” he thinks, “and not I to them.” He began to live even better than before; people themselves came to him and brought offerings. And he will just mutter prayers, eat to his fill and sleep on the side.
Everything was going well for the lama, but the trouble was that mice had spread underground and began raiding from there - not only supplies, but everything that caught their eye, they gnawed and spoiled. They even chewed up the prayer books. “Eh! This won’t work,” the lama decided. “It’s a shame, the damned rodents will still get to my nose.” He thought and thought and decided to invite a cat to be his assistant. The lama gathered all the mouse broods for a khural (meeting, council) and announced to them, pointing to the cat:
- Here is my assistant and your mentor. He will read prayers to you in the evenings. Obey him, otherwise heavenly punishment will befall you.
The mice got scared and agreed to obey the cat. And so every evening they gathered in the cat's cell. The cat, purring and looking at them greedily, read to them church books about meekness and love for one's neighbor. When the prayer service ended and the mice went to their holes, the cat grabbed the mouse that was the last to leave the cell. After feasting on the mouse, the cat climbed up to the llama, and they, pleased with each other, started snoring together.
Day after day passed, and the mice began to notice that there were fewer and fewer of them. They decided to hold a council among themselves.
“What happened, girlfriends?” asks the gray mouse. “Ever since our mentor cat appeared, our family began to shrink.” What is the reason?
“In the cat,” the black mouse answered confidently. “I noticed how he eagerly examines us and licks his lips.”
“It can’t be!” the gray mouse objected to her. “The cat is so learned, courteous and loves us all.” I don’t believe he could be a mouse eater!
An argument broke out. In the end, the mice agreed to tie a lama's bell to the cat's tail so that they would know where the cat was going and what it was doing. No sooner said than done. And so the next evening, when the mentor cat began to mutter prayers to them, two mice, black and gray, quietly crept up behind him and tied a bell to his tail.
The cat finished the prayer service and dismissed the mice from their holes. All the mice, except the gray one, rushed out the door, but they are not in a hurry to go home as before. They walked away a little and waited. And the gray mouse was the last to go to the exit. Slowly he moves his paws, looks around and looks at the cat with emotion. The cat, without hesitation, caught up with the mouse in two leaps and grabbed it by the back. The gray mouse squealed, but it’s too late!
At the ringing of the bell, the mice ran to the door and peeked through the cracks. They see - the cat played with a gray mouse and ate it. Licks his lips and purrs. Then he began to chase his tail, catching the rattle.
“What did I tell you?” the black mouse asks his girlfriends. “Now everyone is convinced how meek our mentor is, how he loves his neighbors.” This is not a mentor, but a glutton mangys. He will eat us all if we don't run away from here.
The mice scattered to different places and from then on began to be wary of cats.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru