One day a fox found a fish, dragged it to the haystack and began to eat. A hungry wolf walks past and sees; the fox eats fish. He approached her and said:
- Great, godfather! - Hello, kumanek, hello! - the fox answers.
- Kuma, give me at least one fish! - asks the wolf.
- Go ahead, godfather, catch it yourself! - the fox answers him. “I put a lot of work into getting this fish.”
“I don’t know how, godfather,” says the wolf, “teach me!”
- So be it - I’ll teach you! You see: near the village there is a lake, and in that lake there is an ice hole. Sit by the ice hole and dip your tail into the water, and you’ll catch fish overnight.
The wolf listened to the fox. He came to the ice hole at night, dipped his tail into the water and sat. And at night a severe frost hit, the water in the ice hole froze, and the wolf's tail froze into the ice. Once the wolf moved his tail, it was hard. Another time he moved it - even harder. Apparently the fish are biting well. “I’ll wait a little longer,” the wolf thinks, “let him bite more,” and he sits and doesn’t move.
In the morning a fox came running.
- Well, godfather, is he biting? - asks. - He’s biting, godfather, he’s biting! - the wolf answers.
- Well, sit still. If you sit longer, you’ll catch more,” the fox advised and ran away. But not into the forest. The cheat ran to the village and told the women that the wolf in the hole was muddying the water with its tail.
The women didn’t believe it at first, they rushed to the lake and saw that he was really sitting there. The whole village came running to the ice hole - some with a stick, some with a stake, some with a poker - to beat the wolf. The wolf tried to run, but he couldn’t: his tail was frozen. People flew at the wolf and started hitting him - some with a stick, some with a stake, some with a poker. The noise was incredible: people were screaming, the wolf was howling in pain. Finally, the gray one jerked with all his might, pulled out his tail - tore off all the skin from it - and began to run as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, the fox climbed into the hut, knocked over the kneading bowl with dough, stuck her head in, smeared herself all over with dough and rushed into the forest.
A wolf met her and cried bitter tears:
- Oh, godfather, how you deceived me! I didn’t catch a single fish and barely got away with it.
“It’s bad, godfather, oh, how bad,” the fox groans, “and it’s even worse for me.” I ran to help you, but on the way I ran into women. One woman hit me so hard on the head with a poker that my brains came out. You see: they are already drying up on the back of the head.
“Ay-ay, godfather, so you got it even worse than me,” the wolf felt sorry for the fox. “Sit on my back, I’ll carry you a little, we can’t hesitate.” Do you hear dogs barking? They'll catch up and catch up, and it'll be even worse. Let's run, godfather!
- Oh, kumanek, you have a kind heart! - says the fox. “Carry me to the hole, maybe I can rest there.” Otherwise, it’s the end of me, I have no more strength, I won’t be able to get home on my own.
The wolf put the fox on his back and dragged himself through the deep snow. The fox sits on the back of the wolf and whispers:
- The beaten one carries the unbeaten, the beaten one carries the unbeaten! The wolf heard the fox whispering something and asked:
- What are you talking about, godfather? “I’m praying,” the fox answers and continues aloud: “The beaten one carries the beaten one.”
The wolf trudges on, and the fox again whispers: “The beaten one carries the unbeaten, the beaten one carries the unbeaten!”
So the unharmed fox rode the beaten wolf to its hole.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru