One day in the spring a bear, a wolf, a dog and a hare met. They complained to each other about how bad life was for them in the winter: it was cold and difficult to get food. And they began to hold council.
- Let's live together, it will be better! - said the bear.
Everyone agreed on this. They built a hut in a forest clearing and began to live together. One day the bear says:
- Friends, it’s time to prepare for winter: we should buy us a cow. The dog will herd her. Look, by winter we will have gained a batman (a measure of weight equal to 20 kg) of butter.
The others readily agreed with the bear. That same day they went to the market, sold the skins of the animals they had killed and bought a cow with the proceeds.
Every day the dog took the cow out into the clearing and grazed her, and the wolf milked her every evening. The hare found out where the best grass was for the cow, and the bear was in charge of the entire farm.
So the whole summer passed, and by autumn the friends had collected a whole batman of ghee.
“We need to put the batman with butter in the hut, under the roof,” said the bear. “Let no one touch the butter for now.” When winter comes, we will take a little of it and fry the potatoes.
Again everyone agreed with the bear - they picked up the batman with melted butter and hid it under the roof of the hut.
One evening they were sitting having tea when suddenly someone knocked. They sent a hare to open the door.
They see that a fox has come, and in its paw it holds a kumgan (a metal vessel for water), and it itself is meek, quiet and bows low.
- Hello, dear friends! Good evening! The owners greeted her and invited her to drink tea.
The fox sat down at the table and began to speak quietly and modestly:
- I'm a lonely orphan. Take me into your family too.
“Okay, today we will hold advice on whether or not to take you into our family, tomorrow you will come for the answer,” the bear told her.
The fox thanked the owners for the tea and left.
- I feel sorry for her. She is so modest and quiet, we must accept her, the owners decided.
The next morning the fox came. The animals announced their decision to accept her into their family. And the fox began to live with them.
She behaved modestly, obeyed everyone and tried with all her might to please not only the bear, wolf and dog, but even the hare.
Soon the fox found out that a batman with melted butter was hidden under the roof of the hut. Fox loves butter! She decided to eat the butter alone and began to come up with a trick.
Finally she came up with an idea - that’s why she’s a fox!
One evening the fox said that he was going to check if the gate was tightly locked. She went out the door, went to the window, knocked on it and asked in a voice that was not her own:
- Is the orphan fox at home?
“At home, at home, he’ll come from the yard now,” they answered her.
“Tell her to come to us now and name the newborn badger.”
“Okay,” they answered from home. The fox returned to the hut.
“Fox, just now they came to call you to the newborn badger,” said the bear.
“Well, we need to go,” answered the fox. She got ready and left the hut. She walked around the hut, jumped under the roof, found a batman with butter and began to eat it. The fox ate his fill, rested and returned home.
“What did you treat us to?” they asked her.
“Roast goose, boiled chicken and butter,” answered the fox and licked her fat lips.
- What name did you give it? - asked the dog.
“A cob,” answered the fox.
The next day the fox said that she had to go and give her a name again, and she went out, climbed under the roof and ate the butter up to the middle of the batman.
— What name did you give the newborn? - the hare asked the fox when she returned.
“Middle,” answered the fox. On the third day, the fox again climbed under the roof and ate all the butter. She licked the batman clean and returned home.
“What name did you give her?” the bear asked her.
“Last thing,” answered the fox.
And then winter came with frost and blizzard.
One day the bear says:
- Well, friends, we need to bring some oil and fry some potatoes.
- Come on, come on! — the others happily agreed.
“Go, fox, bring some butter,” said the bear.
Everyone went out into the hallway. The fox was about to climb the wall under the roof, but fell to the ground and pretended that he couldn’t climb the wall.
“It’s too high, I can’t climb,” the fox complains.
The dog decided to help the fox. I planted the fox. So she climbed up, and everyone below heard the squeaky voice of the fox from under the roof:
- No, there’s no oil here! There is only an empty Batman.
Nobody believed her. Then the fox rolled down the empty Batman. They look - and indeed, the batman is empty.
“No strangers came to us.” Who is this unscrupulous person who ate the butter? - the bear growled. - Find the robber now!
For a long time they wondered how to find the thief. And this is what the bear came up with:
- Let's make a big fire and sit around it. For someone who eats butter, it will melt and flow out.
That's what they did: they lit a fire.
Soon they warmed themselves up by the fire and fell asleep. Since the first winter frosts were already upon us, the bear slept soundest of all.
Only one fox was awake. She sees oil flowing all over her fur. The fox was afraid that this might give her away and then she would not escape punishment. She decided to blame it on the bear: she wiped the oil off herself and smeared it on the sleeping bear.
When they woke up, they saw: everyone was as dry as they were, and the bear’s fur was covered in oil. ,
- That's who ate the butter! - the animals shouted and wanted to punish the bear.
- Take your time! There’s some kind of trick here,” said the bear. “We need to make the fire even hotter and test everyone again.”
Everyone agreed. Only the fox said that there was no need to make a fire, otherwise it would be hot.
The fire was lit again and everyone sat around it. The bear, according to his winter habit, began snoring again. And the wolf, dog and hare pretended to be sleeping. Oil began to appear on the fox again.
The fox waited until the animals fell asleep, then began to wipe off the oil again and rub the bear with it.
The wolf, the hare and the dog saw this, jumped up and attacked the fox with a cry:
- That's where the real thief is! And she also pretended to be a quiet orphan!
The noise woke the bear. They told him how it happened.
- I didn’t eat butter! No no! - the fox refused.
Then everyone pounced on the fox, tied it up, and began holding it close to the fire by its paws and tail. The oil flowed from it onto the fire.
After this they said:
- Leave now! So that your spirit is not here. There is no place for you in our friendly family!
The fox picked up her kumgan and walked away as quickly as possible.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru