Once upon a time, seven mouse brothers lived on earth. They had their own yurt, the size of a palm.
One morning they woke up and saw that snow had piled up overnight - the walls were hidden! The brothers made wooden shovels and began to shovel the snow. We worked all day and were very hungry.
And suddenly, in the place where the snow had just been shoveled away, everyone saw a piece of butter. He was lying right in front of the Youngest Brother's nose. Before everyone had time to open their mouths, he ate this oil.
The Eldest Brother shouted:
- What have you done?! I ate everything myself! Here I am now!
And in front of the frightened mouse brothers, he jumped and swallowed the Youngest Brother right out of his tail. Then five brothers attacked him, tied him up and dragged him to the khan for trial. They walked for a long time, they were very tired, until they reached the khan. They left the bound brother at the door, and they themselves entered the yurt.
The Khan sat majestically on the throne. He looked with a grin at the sweaty, out of breath mice.
-Where did you come from? - asked the khan.
“We came from across seven rivers, from across seven passes,” answered the mice.
- You can see it, how their tongues are sticking out! - the khan remarked.
“There were seven of us,” said the mice.
- Wow, so many! - the khan laughed.
“We had our own yurt, the size of your palm,” said the mice.
- Big yurt! - Khan grinned.
— When we were shoveling the snow, our Youngest Brother found a piece of butter and ate it. And then the Eldest Brother swallowed him right up!
- Oh, how scary he is! Where is he? - asked the khan.
“We tied him up and dragged him to you for trial.” He lies behind the doors. It's very big. When we found him, he was very small, we took him in and began to call him our Youngest Brother, but he grew faster than anyone, and soon we began to call him our Elder Brother. He began to sleep no longer in the yurt, but outside.
“Drag him here,” the khan ordered. The mouse brothers dragged in the tied up Eldest Brother.
- Ha-ha-ha! - the khan laughed. - But it’s a cat! - And he began to untie the blades of grass that tangled the cat’s paws.
- Khan, how will you punish him? - asked the mice.
“Here’s how: I’ll untie you and let you go.” He did well to eat the mouse! And may he devour you all! - the khan shouted.
The mouse brothers got scared and ran away in all directions.
And the khan made their Eldest Brother his cat.
Since then the cat has not been friends with mice. He remembers how they dragged him, tied, across seven rivers, through seven passes to the khan for trial.
And the mice were offended by the khan for acquitting the criminal cat, and began to steal grain, flatbread, lard, and butter from the khan.
Since then, mice have become the enemies of people, and cats have become the enemies of mice.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru