One day Pekale was sitting at the edge of the forest and thinking about what he should do. He looked at the road and saw a stroller rolling straight towards him. Pekale placed a large log upside down, wrapped his arms around it and held it so it wouldn’t fall. And the boyar and the boyar were riding in the carriage, and the coachman was driving the horses. The boyar Pekale saw and ordered the coachman to stop.
“Good,” he says, “health to you!”
“Thank you,” Pekale replies.
- What are you doing here?
- Yes, boyar, I cut down this forest. I'll give her a little rest. Once I have a rest, I’ll take it home. Where are you going?
“I’ve heard about Pekale, who can outwit everyone.” So I’m going to look for him so that he can outwit me too.
Pekale says to the boyar:
“You don’t have to go far.” I am that same Pekale.
I just can’t outsmart you - I left my cunning at home. If you want, I’ll go home, bring the trick, and then I’ll outwit you. And to help me get around faster, give me your stroller. And you wait here with the noblewoman and the coachman. Hold this wood for now. Just hold it tightly so that it doesn’t lean to the sides. And I’ll turn around in an instant.
We got out of the carriage. The boyar grabbed the log and held it with all his might, and Pekale sat in the carriage, whipped the horses, and that was it!
Night has come - Pekale is not coming. The day has come, and it is already approaching sunset. A passerby passed by:
- Good afternoon!
- Not really! - the boyar answers.
- Why are you standing there, boyar?
The boyar told the passerby that he was holding the log so that it would stand straight and not lean to the sides until Pekale brought his cunning from the village and outwitted him, the boyar.
“He said that he would quickly turn around in my carriage, but it still doesn’t go,” the boyar finished his story.
Then a passerby says to the boyar:
“Is it really not enough for you to be cunning that you are left without a carriage and without horses?”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru