The cunning Petre was returning from the fair and again met three envious people. They quietly gloated. Petre hid his rage, pretended to be very grateful to them for the service: he cut off the cow and immediately sold it for much more than if it had been in its normal nature. And so he wants to treat his benefactors in return.
Two birds with one stone lived at the house of the cunning Petre. Before receiving the three deceivers, our Petre took the little hare and went into the field, not far from the house - so that from there he could hear what was going on in the village. And he sternly ordered his wife that, as soon as the guests arrived, she should take the second little bunny, stroke it affectionately and immediately tell her to quickly run into the field and call the owner.
Well, the guests have arrived. The wife invited them to sit down, and she took out a bunny from the wickerwork, stroked it affectionately and told them to quickly run for Petre. The little hare ran, the village dogs chased after him and started barking. The cunning Petre heard the dog chorus and immediately ran home. The guests were surprised and asked:
-Who told you so quickly that we had arrived?
- Like who? - Petre was surprised. - What's the use of the bunny?
Then he took the first bunny out of his bosom and showed it to the guests (the second bunny was probably already far away!). The guests were surprised and asked if Petre would sell them the learned hare. Petre broke down for the sake of appearance at first, and then, as if to please the guests, he agreed. He asked for a huge amount of money for a hare; perhaps he would have received less for a cow.
The guests counted out the money for him, took the hare, and left. But there were three of them, so they began to argue about which of them should own the hare. They decided this: first, let him stay with the first for two or three days, then with the second, and then with the third, so that no one would be offended.
The envious people wanted to have fun with the hare. They dispersed in different directions. The first one took the little hare in his hands, caressed it, carefully lowered it to the ground and sent it with an errand to the other. And the little hare got scared and ran without looking back to his native forest.
And so it happened: they lost the hare, and gave away a lot of money - they compensated the wicked Peter a hundredfold for the loss. And Petre grinned and said quietly:
- Friends, these are just flowers, and the berries are ahead. Maybe there will be more!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru