In one village there lived a widow. She had a rooster, a pig, a goat and a donkey. On a donkey, the widow carried firewood and corn flour from the mill, the goat gave birth and milk, the pig gave birth to piglets, and the rooster multiplied the chicken family. When the chickens and kids grew up, the widow sold them or cut them for herself.
The widow fed and watered her animals and poultry in abundance. But they, having become spoiled, began to grumble about their life. In the end, they began to neglect their wet nurse and consider themselves almost the masters of the estate.
One day a donkey climbed into the house. There, in the corner, he saw a large jug of sour milk. Without thinking twice, he stuck his muzzle into the jug and began to feast on the contents. Noticing this, the widow grabbed a stick, hit him several times and drove him out into the yard. The donkey was offended by his mistress for such punishment.
“I served you well,” he said, “carrying sacks from the mill, carrying firewood from the forest.” And when I wanted to refresh myself with sour milk, you beat me off. Where is the justice here? I won't set foot here anymore!
And the donkey left the yard aimlessly.
The next day, the pig, out of idleness, began to dig the ground in the yard. The hostess saw this and began throwing stones at her. The pig became indignant:
- How many piglets did I bring you? You probably forgot about this? What did you not buy for yourself by selling my offspring, and now you are throwing stones at me. I don't want to know you anymore!
She followed the donkey's tracks and, having caught up with him, asked:
-Where are you going, buddy?
“I’m going wherever my eyes take me, just to be away from our ungrateful mistress,” answered the donkey.
- Take me with you, I despise this vile creature!
The donkey agreed, and they set off on their journey together.
In the evening, a goat climbed into the garden and began to eat the beans.
- Oh, so that the wolves can eat you! - the indignant widow shouted and ran into the garden.
There she pulled a stick out of the fence and beat the goat. She rushed as fast as she could and, running away, began to reproach the hostess:
- Because of a handful of beans, you beat me like crazy! Have you forgotten about my milk and sold goats?! Enough, you won't see me again!
The goat ran away from the yard, caught up with the donkey and the pig and joined them.
Meanwhile, a visitor came to the widow. She kneaded the dough, put it under the shed and, forgetting about it, chatted with the guest. The rooster saw the dough and began to peck at it. He pecked so greedily that he did not notice how the widow approached him and covered the glutton with a sieve. When the rooster heard that the approaching guest advised the hostess to kill such a slacker, he broke out from under the sieve and rushed headlong out of the yard. He wandered alone for a long time until he finally found his friends - a donkey, a pig and a goat.
Let's move on together. When it began to get dark, they decided to spend the night in the forest. We chose a place at the edge of the forest. The rooster flew to the top of the tree, the goat climbed onto a thick sloping branch,
and the donkey and the pig settled down under a tree.
At night, the jackals sensed the spirit of domestic animals. They sent the fox to investigate. It was a moonlit night, the rooster slept poorly, as the wind shook the top of the tree. He noticed a fox and out of fear began to flap his wings and scream in a voice that was not his own. The fox got scared and ran into the forest.
- Well, what did you sniff out? - the jackals asked her.
“There I noticed some unknown animal,” said the fox, “and barely ran away...
- Go back and find out everything better! We are hungry, if you come with nothing, we will skin you,” the jackals threatened the fox.
The fox stealthily went to the edge of the forest again. But this time the donkey noticed her. He raised such a roar that the fox's fur stood on end with fear, and she took off running without looking back.
The animals did not believe the fox and sent a jackal with her. Dawn has arrived. The pig woke up and started digging the ground, the goat climbed into the bushes, and the donkey began to pluck the grass.
"They're looking for us!" - the fox whispered to the jackal and rushed back headlong. The jackal rushed to the side and, falling into the hole, raised a terrible howl. The jackals, who were waiting nearby for the scouts, got scared and disappeared into the thicket.
Having refreshed themselves with whatever God had sent, the friends set off again. They walked for a long time and came to a large clearing. There was a house at the edge of the clearing. Adjacent to it was a garden where large bunches of grapes hung from the trees.
There was no living creature visible either in the house or around; friends felt like masters and began to manage everything in their own way.
Suddenly the rooster noticed an adau walking to his home. Friends rushed into the house to hide. In a hurry, they turned everything over, rushed from side to side and, finally, climbed into the attic.
Adau entered the house and gasped; He had never been in such a mess before. In anger, he began to search all the nooks and crannies, but could not find the culprit. Maybe he would have guessed to go up to the attic, but then the boards broke under the donkey, and he fell straight onto the adau. Following him, a goat and a pig fell down, and the last one to fall down was a rooster. The frightened adau, deciding that they wanted to kill him, ran into the forest.
Falling from the attic, the donkey hurt his back, the pig hurt his leg, the goat knocked out its horn, and the rooster crushed its comb. And they gained quite a bit of fear. The companions began to judge and decide: what to do next? What if the Adau comes to his senses and returns. Then they'll be in trouble...
The pig attacked the donkey:
- Oh, you dumbass, this is what your stupid idea led to - you left the hostess and set us up!
- Why are you slandering, you fat mug! You caught up with me on the road and pestered me. I wouldn’t have gone far alone and maybe I would have returned soon.
“Of course, when the goat left, what could I do,” sighed the rooster.
“I left with our four-legged company, and you had no business clinging to us,” the goat snapped.
They argued for a long time, reproaching each other, and finally decided to return in good health to their mistress, because they rightly say: “The grave will correct the hunchback, and the stick will correct the quarrelsome.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru