The cunning rooster spread his wings, jumped up on the fence and crowed at the top of his lungs. The fox ran out from a nearby grove.
- Good afternoon! - shouts. “I heard you crowing, so I came running.” Well, you eat well! I just don’t know if you can sing like your dad sang.
- How did my dad sing?
“He used to jump up on the fence, and stand on one leg, and tuck the other. He closes one eye and crows. What a singer he was!
- And I can do that!
The rooster tucked his leg, closed one eye and crowed.
“Can you, standing on one leg, close both eyes and still sing?” - asks the fox.
- Can! - the rooster crowed.
But before he had time to close both eyes, the fox jumped up and grabbed the rooster! The fox took him into the forest, crushed him with his paws and was already preparing to eat.
“Eh,” the rooster sighed, “there was a time when your mother didn’t do that.”
- How did she do it? - asks the fox.
“Your mother had this custom: she used to catch a rooster and say a prayer before eating it. The fox was pious, pious.
The fox thought and thought and decided: I need to pray too. She folded her front paws, closed her eyes, and began to whisper a prayer. And the rooster was waiting for that. As soon as the fox withdrew his paws, he took off - and jumped onto a nearby tree!
- May you be killed by thunder! - the fox squealed. - He outwitted me, the fox!
And, hungry, she trudged home.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru