The hare was famous among animals for its intelligence. For his wisdom, the animals called the hare Judge. To tell the truth, the hare did not always manage to get away with it, but few people know about this. In any case, the hare’s life was full of adventures; he always got into all sorts of troubles! You can’t even tell us everything. But we can tell you something.
One day a hare jumped out of yet another mess and lay down to rest in the bushes, not far from a village. The hare was tired and terribly hungry. He saw an old woman walking along the road, carrying a basket of ripe bananas on her head, and thought: “I’m so tired, so hungry. I need to refresh myself. I wish I could taste the bananas from the old woman’s basket! Perhaps it’s best to pretend to be dead.”
A hare ran along the side of the road, overtook an old woman with bananas, crawled onto the road, lay down and pretended to be dead.
The old woman saw the hare, decided that he was really dead, and exclaimed loudly:
- I'm lucky today! I went to sell bananas and found a hare. I'll take it with me.
The old woman put the hare in a basket with bananas. That's all the hare needs! While the old woman was walking, he ate all the bananas, jumped out and was gone. An old woman came to the market, put her basket on the ground, and lo and behold, there were neither bananas nor a hare. Meanwhile, the well-fed hare ran into the forest. He wanted to quench his thirst and went to the shore of a deep pond. He bent down to the water and was just about to get a drink, when he suddenly heard the angry voices of the slugs that lived in this pond.
- Hey, hare, how dare you drink water from our pond!
“Why shouldn’t I drink,” objected the hare, “whose water is this?”
- Ours!
“Well, if so,” the hare grinned, “then let’s bet: whoever runs around the pond the fastest will get water.” If I’m first, I’ll drink to my heart’s content; you’ll overtake me, and I won’t drink.
The slugs agreed. But they were very cunning and immediately distributed among themselves places along the entire coast.
The slugs took their places, and the first slug shouts:
- Well, hare, let's run!
The hare set off as fast as he could. He ran a few steps and shouted:
- Hey, slugs! Where are you?
And the other slug in front answers:
- Hare! We're here!
“How,” the hare was surprised, “did they overtake me?” - and started running even faster. But no matter how hard the hare tried, the slugs always came out ahead. The hare got scared and ran away from the pond.
Since then, the hares have not drunk water from the pond; they quench their thirst with sweet dew.
The hare ran and ran, reached the river and did not know how to get to the other side. The hare did not know how to swim. Suddenly he sees a crocodile swimming along the river. The hare thinks: “Shouldn’t I swim across on horseback on a crocodile?” So he asks:
- Brother crocodile, what are those scabs on your skin? Shouldn't you take it away? I can cure you of this disease. If you take me across the river, I will be happy to help you.
“I would transport you, but I just can’t believe that you will cure me.”
“Be calm, I’ll cure you in no time,” the hare assures the crocodile.
It was disgusting for the hare to sit on the lumpy back of the crocodile. He picked large leaves to spread under himself.
“Why do you need leaves?” the crocodile was surprised.
“As a keepsake, your good deed will forever remain in my heart,” the hare lied and settled on the crocodile’s head.
The crocodile swam to the opposite shore. The hare jumped from the crocodile's head onto the shore and shouted:
“Your lichens, brother, were inherited from your venerable ancestors.” Nobody can cure them! Ha ha!
The crocodile got angry, but what can you do now with the impudent hare who tricked him so cleverly?
The hare burst out laughing and ran on blithely. He ran back to the river, and the crocodile was waiting for him there. He saw a hare and decided to cheat: he froze without moving - go figure it was a crocodile or a log.
The hare sees something floating in the water. It seemed to him that it was a log, but he immediately began to doubt: was it really a crocodile trying to deceive him? The hare stopped and shouted:
- If you are a log, then swim against the current! If it's a crocodile, go with the flow!
The crocodile heard this and swam against the current. The hare laughed:
- Look at this simpleton! And he still wanted to take me through. Where are you going, stupid crocodile!
The crocodile sees that his trick failed. So he thinks: “What if I crawl out and pretend to be dead?” So he did. He went ashore and pretended to be dead: he opened his mouth wide and wide and was not breathing.
The hare saw the crocodile and galloped towards him:
- Yes, brother, it seems that you really have died. But the crocodile doesn’t budge. The hare jumped into the crocodile’s mouth, began to feel the sharp crocodile teeth and reason with himself: “I’ll make an excellent knife from this tooth, and from this one - a knife for my wife.”
The hare reasoned and reasoned, and the crocodile - once again! - and slammed his mouth shut. The teeth clicked so hard that the hare jumped in fright straight into the crocodile’s belly. He came to his senses in his belly, looked around and started shouting:
- Wow! It's great here! My teeth really itch at the sight of these magnificent intestines! Now I'll enjoy them. And he drummed his paws on the walls of the crocodile’s stomach.
The crocodile twisted in pain, he prayed:
“Don’t destroy me, brother hare, I will never touch you again.”
“Okay,” said the hare conciliatoryly, “if you ask so, I’m ready to forgive you and leave your guts alone.”
The crocodile opened its terrible mouth, the hare jumped out and ran into the forest.
He ran through the forest, ran and saw a huge stump. He jumped on it, sat down and stuck: the sun melted the resin on the stump, and the hare firmly stuck to it.
At this time, a baby elephant approached the pond, near which there was a stump.
- Hey, you! - the hare shouted to him. - Don't you dare drink water from my pond! God Indra himself appointed me to guard this pond!
The little elephant got scared, ran to his mother elephant and told him everything. The mother elephant got angry, went with her son to the pond, saw a hare and asked:
- Hey, hare, why didn’t you let my son get drunk?
“And I won’t let you drink,” the hare became stubborn. “Indra himself entrusted me with guarding this pond!”
The elephant became even more angry, grabbed the hare with her trunk, tore it off the stump and threw it away. And that’s all the hare needed.
One day a hare came across a bed of cucumbers and began to come here and snack on fresh cucumbers. The grandfather noticed this and set a trap in the garden. A hare came at night for cucumbers and fell into a trap. I was scared: my grandfather was about to come. Suddenly he sees a huge toad jumping past. The hare asks:
- Why is it, sister toad, that your skin is covered in warts? I can cure your illness at once, just help me get out of the trap.
The toad was happy. She had long wanted to get rid of ugly warts. She began to help the hare. The hare climbed out of the trap and laughed:
- Oh, you stupid toad! Your warts were inherited from your ancestors. No doctor can bring them together. - And he ran away.
The toad got angry and chased the hare, but how could you catch him?
The grandfather came to the garden and saw that the hare was visiting again: he ate the cucumbers, broke the trap - and remember his name.
“Well, okay,” says the grandfather, “this time I didn’t have to try the hare.” Well, wait a minute, hare!
The grandfather made a new trap, stronger than the first, and returned home. At night the hare wanted fresh cucumbers. He ran to the garden and forgot to think about the trap. But in vain I forgot!
Trap - once! - and slammed shut. The hare got scared and doesn't know how to get out.
The toad saw that the hare had been caught again, and was glad: you will not deceive the forest people. Jumps around the hare and shouts:
- Well, hare, how many times have you deceived me! Now you can’t escape your grandfather’s cauldron! And no one will help you, a deceiver!
The hare got angry, but he didn’t show it, bowed his head humbly and said to the toad.
- And that’s true, sister toad. Last time I deceived you. But this is because I don’t know how to cure you. But now I propose the right thing. I have a beauty in mind, I can marry her to your son. I've already talked to her parents. They agree to marry their daughter to your son. Just help me get out of the trap.
The toad heard this, believed it and was happy - they never had any beauties in their family, but here was such an opportunity!
“Look,” says the toad, “don’t even try to deceive me.”
- What you! I stand behind my words with my head. The land of Temples is full of beautiful girls. Even if I deceive you, you can go there yourself and find a beautiful bride for your son. Brides are cheap these days. It’s not without reason that they say: eleven brides looked through all their eyes, waiting for the groom.
The toad began to help the hare. The hare got out of the trap, ran to the side and shouted:
- Ha-ha-ha! Who will give your warty son a beauty as his wife? I fooled you again!
The toad got angry. But I still remembered that there are many brides in the country of Temples. So she went in search of the country of the Temples. Whoever asks her where she is in such a hurry, the toad answers:
“I’m hurrying to the land of the Temples to find a bride for my son.”
First the toad jumped on the ground, then swam on the water. There the fish ate it.
Meanwhile, the hare climbed into the reed thickets, lay down to rest, and the tiger came across him. The hare saw the tiger and shouted in a hoarse voice:
- Oh! I ate five elephants and am still not full. And here are these bitter eggplants, you will be completely hoarse from them. You should clear your throat with tiger liver.
The tiger heard these words and was scared to death. He ran to the monkey:
“You know, sister monkey, some terrible beast has appeared in our forest.” I'm walking and I hear him shouting:
“I ate five elephants and was not satisfied, I swallowed eggplant and osip. I should clear my throat with a tiger’s liver.” How will this monster find me?
- What does this beast look like? - asks the monkey.
- It’s small in itself, its ears are very long, its tail is short.
- Well, brother tiger, you have nothing to fear. This is a hare, he is a famous braggart.
“No,” says the tiger, “it can’t be.” After all, I myself saw pieces of elephant tusks next to the monster.
- If you don’t believe me, brother tiger, let’s go together. Now you'll see that I'm right.
- No, I won’t go, I’m afraid. This monster wants to eat my liver, not yours. And if it chases us, you will bury yourself in a tree, but where will I go?
“What a coward you are, brother tiger!” the monkey got angry. “If you don’t believe me, tear off the vine and tie us together, then I won’t be able to get away from you.”
The tiger tore off the vine, they connected and carefully headed into the thickets where the hare was resting. A hare saw them, hid behind the termite dwelling, leaned out from behind it and shouted loudly and hoarsely:
- Oh, you lousy monkey! How many years have passed, and you still don’t bear the debt! Don't you think that I will accept this skinny old tiger as payment?
The tiger decided that the monkey wanted to give him to the hare to be eaten to pay off an old debt, and he started running without looking back. The monkey hit the tree with all his might and died.
The tiger ran and ran with a dead monkey on his back, finally he dared to look back, saw the grinning mouth of the monkey and decided that she was laughing at him. The tiger got offended, tore the vine, threw the monkey and disappeared into the thicket.
The hare slept all day in the reed thickets and by evening he was hungry. He ran to the field where the peasant had planted rice seedlings, ate his fill and again disappeared into the forest. The next morning the peasant came to look at the field and saw that someone was feasting on the seedlings. He realized that the hare was feasting here. I looked where the tracks led and set a trap there.
The next night the hare again went to graze in the rice field and was caught. The hare's heart sank when he heard the peasant's steps. And the hare pretended to be dead.
A peasant approaches the trap and sees a lifeless hare lying in it. The peasant was delighted, pulled out the hare and laid it on the ground, and he began to alert the trap again. The hare felt freedom, jumped to his feet and quickly into the bushes!
“Oh, you scoundrel!” cried the peasant. - You tricked me cleverly. Well, wait a minute! Tonight you will fall into my trap!
And exactly. Night came, the hare got hungry, went to the rice field and fell into a trap. He couldn't think of anything. So he sat there all night, despondent and despondent, waiting for death. A peasant came in the morning and saw the same hare sitting in a trap. The peasant was delighted, pulled the hare out of the trap and said:
- Well, I would like to know how you will escape the cauldron this time, even though you are a famous trickster!
The peasant brought the hare home and covered it with a top. This morning the peasant was very lucky. He not only caught a hare, but caught an even bigger fish.
The peasant left to do some housework, and told his wife to cook the rice. Meanwhile, the hare managed to come to an agreement with the fish.
“When they come for you,” he taught the fish, “pretend you’re barely alive.” Move, move and turn your belly up. They will throw you into the water so that you come to life, but at first you do not move, then pretend that you want to sneak away. The owner will take the top with which I am covered and will want to catch you. As soon as he grabs the top, dive deeper and save yourself.
Everything happened as the hare said. When the rice was ready, the peasant took the fish by the gills and took it to the pond to gut it. He sees that the fish is completely sleepy. He dipped her in water. The fish suddenly jerked and jumped out of his hands, but did not go into the depths, and began to swim on the surface, as the hare taught it. The peasant catches it, catches it, but cannot catch it, the fish keeps slipping out of his hands.
He shouted to his wife to bring the top quickly. The wife ran out at her husband’s cry, grabbed the top and rushed to the pond. The fish saw that the woman was carrying the top, immediately dived and did not appear again.
The hare, of course, immediately ran away.
The husband and wife got angry. They climbed through the water, climbed, were so frozen that they couldn’t touch a tooth, but they still didn’t catch any fish. They returned home, remembered the hare, but there was no trace of him long ago.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru