They say that once upon a time there lived a gentleman, and he had many poultry houses, and in them a countless number of chickens and ducks and geese. The master hired a servant for himself, so that there would be someone to take care of all this bird, feed it, water it, close it at night, and he himself used to come once every two or three days and count the bird. And there was so much work there that the poor servant had no time to rest, not to mention the fact that he didn’t even smell chicken. Why! The master got everything. The servant thought, thought about this injustice, and then one day he caught a goose and caught it in a pot, and then ate it, delighting his heart. The master began to count his hundred geese, but there were only ninety-nine of them.
- May (whatever he called him there), there’s only one goose missing!
- What are you saying, master, everything is in place.
“Where is everyone when there are only ninety-nine of them?”
“No, a full hundred,” the servant does not give in. The master counted again. No goose and that's it!
- May, burst your eyes, I’ll make a goose out of you!
- Why are you attached to me, master, the whole hundred are in place. So they argued with each other for a long time, one said: no!
the second is yours: yes! The master decided to prove he was right. He ordered one hundred of his servants to appear at the poultry house and counted them.
- Do you see a hundred servants?
- I see.
“Since you say there are a hundred geese here, then there will be one goose for each servant, right?”
“May,” the master tells the servants, “come on, grab a goose each, but only one at a time.”
The servants attacked the geese, chased them, chased them, and soon caught them all. Ninety-nine fellows stand with geese under their arms, and one is left with nothing.
- Now tell me, damned one, why was this one left without a goose?
“So who’s to blame, master, if he hesitated and didn’t contrive to catch a goose for himself?”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru