Once upon a time there lived a lion. One day he fell ill and lay in his lair. A bear comes to bow to him. Leo asks him:
- Listen, little bear, tell me, doesn’t it stink here, in my lair?
“Yes, it stinks great,” the bear answers.
The lion got angry and tore the bear to pieces.
And the hare stood at the entrance to the lair and saw everything. He went to bow to the lion, and he asked:
- Listen, bunny, tell me, does it stink here, in my lair?
- Oh no! - says the bunny. - Why would there be a stink in here, it smells very good here!
“You’re lying,” the lion answers, “it doesn’t smell here, but it stinks,” and tore the hare to pieces.
All this was seen and heard by the wolf who was waiting in front of the lair. He also comes to bow to the lion. He asks him:
“Tell me, wolf, does my lair stink or smell?”
The wolf answers:
- And it doesn’t stink or smell.
“You’re lying, it must either stink or smell,” said the lion, grabbed the wolf and tore it to pieces.
The fox saw and heard all this. When she came to bow to the lion, he asked her:
- Listen, fox, tell me, does it stink or smell in my lair?
The fox answers:
“Forgive me, blessed king, by God, I don’t know whether it smells or stinks here: I have a cold, I have a runny nose, that’s why I can’t tell you, but I don’t dare lie.”
And the lion did not tear the fox to pieces because she was smart.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru