The donkey ran away from his owner, found a flowering meadow and began to graze. Suddenly a lion appeared in front of him. He was surprised to see the donkey:
- How dare you, long-eared one, graze where I walk?
In fear, the donkey screamed, raising his head, as donkeys always scream - shrilly and loudly:
- And me! And I! And I!
The lion had never heard a donkey cry. Out of surprise, he jumped and ran: it seemed to him that the meadows and mountains trembled. As he ran, he collided with a wolf.
- What’s wrong with you, where are you running without looking back? - the wolf asked the lion.
“There’s an unprecedented beast grazing on the lawn,” answered the lion. “He screams so that the earth and sky shake from his trumpet cry!”
“Come on, let’s go, show it to me,” said the wolf. “I don’t know such an animal.” When the wolf saw the donkey, he laughed and said:
- Well, the king of beasts was afraid of a simple donkey! Visible; You don’t know your subjects well. Well, let's come closer. Now you will see how this unprecedented beast will fall into the wolf’s teeth!
The lion did not like the wolf's ridicule, and he did not move. The wolf ran up to the donkey.
- Hey, donkey, now I'll tear you apart! - the wolf shouted. Bowing low, the donkey said to the wolf:
- O beauty of wolves, it will do you little good if you tear me apart and eat me. You will always have time. I'm not a simple ass. I know three different runs:
I can jog, trot and gallop - faster than the fastest chamois. Sit on me, I'll take you for a ride.
“Indeed, I’ve been walking all my life, I’m tired,” thought the wolf. “Why?”
Wouldn't I like to ride a donkey?
And the wolf mounted the donkey.
First the donkey jogged, then trot. So they rode out onto a wide field, and at that time there was a race going on: five hundred horsemen, at full gallop, snatched a goat from each other and rushed with it across the field.
“Well, now it’s time for me to start galloping,” said the donkey to the wolf. “Grip me tightly with your paws and close your eyes, otherwise your head will spin from the fast jump.”
The wolf grabbed the donkey tightly with his paws and closed his eyes.
The donkey galloped straight into the midst of the horsemen.
Seeing a wolf riding a donkey, the riders left the goat and chased after new prey. Dozens of hands reached out to the wolf, grabbed his legs, and pulled him in different directions. In an instant the wolf was torn into pieces.
The lion from the hill saw it all.
“No, this is not a simple animal,” he thought about the donkey and hurried to get away from it.
And the cunning donkey went back to graze on the lawn.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru