The mouse's health was poor - there was not enough fresh air in the closet. She ran to her old friend the sparrow for advice on what to do.
“I wasted away,” he says, “in my closet.” There is not enough fresh air. It's not good for me to guard the closet - I should do something else.
“Let’s plow the land,” suggested the sparrow.
- Let's! - the mouse was happy.
So the two of them plowed the field, sowed barley, and sat waiting for the harvest.
The barley grew amazingly - grain by grain and tall, like a forest. The mouse mowed the barley, the sparrow threshed it - they collected a whole mountain of grain, large, golden. All that remains is to divide the harvest so that no one is offended.
They divided the harvest grain by grain: the mouse laid them out into two piles, and the sparrow sat nearby and watched. Everyone got so much that it was time to build a barn. But one grain remained extra - there was no match for it. And the mouse said:
- So be it, I’ll take it for myself.
- How so-so? For what? - The sparrow got angry.
- For what? “Yes, for mowing,” says the mouse. - After all, I mowed!
“And I threshed,” the sparrow does not yield. - Do you think it was easy for me? All my bones still ache.
- Just think! - says the mouse. “I not only mowed, I also laid out the grains.” This is my grain!
- No, mine! - says the sparrow. “It was easy for you to arrange the grains, because I was watching you.”
They argued for seven whole days and came to nothing.
And then they went to the judge - the bear.
The bear was an easy-going gentleman: he sat on his cart and came to judge two old friends. First he listened to how it was. Then he asked for time to think and climbed into the alder forest for the whole day, where it was not so hot. There he thought, and so diligently that the bushes trembled from snoring.
In the evening, the clubfoot woke up and made a decision.
“Everything must be fair,” he said, “and therefore you must divide this extra grain into two halves.”
And load the rest of the harvest onto my cart. It was not for nothing that I worked - I sorted out your dispute.
The mouse and the sparrow knew how to behave and did not argue with the judge: they loaded the entire harvest onto the bear’s cart, and left only one grain for themselves for both of them.
They no longer plow the land, but they are still friends. And when they meet, the sparrow always asks:
- Do you remember, mouse, what kind of barley we had?
- I wish I could remember! - the mouse answers. - Do you remember how well the bear judged us?
- Of course! - says the sparrow. - You won’t forget this!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru