One old man and his son went into the forest to get firewood. Suddenly a lion comes towards them.
“What luck,” the lion roared, “I haven’t eaten anything for three weeks, now I’ll eat you both and we’ll be full.” The son began to tremble with fear.
- Father, what should we do? Because the lion will eat us.
“Don’t be afraid, son, I’ll drive him away now,” the old man answered.
“What can you, old man, do with a strong lion?” - asked the son.
“Strength is not the main thing,” says the old man. - Ingenuity is important. The mind will help you get rid of any strong beast. Look what I'll do now.
The old man picked up his ax and went at the lion.
- How many times have I gone out to hunt a lion, but everything was unsuccessful. And then he complained. Now I will cut you down and take you home. Your meat will last us three days,” the old man said.
-What power do you have to kill me? - said the lion.
“Since you doubt my strength, let’s test each other.” The weak will submit to the strong.
Leo agreed with this proposal. The old man picked up a stone from the ground and handed it to the lion.
“If you are as strong as I am, squeeze this stone so that the juice flows out of it,” said the old man.
The lion squeezed the stone, it crumbled, but no juice flowed.
The old man imperceptibly took an egg out of the khurjun, picked up a stone from the ground and squeezed them together; it began to flow between the old man’s fingers.
“You see, I squeezed the juice out of the stone,” said the old man.
The lion was surprised at the strength of the old man and out of fear agreed to obey him. Since then, the old man rode around on a lion.
One day an old man was chopping wood in the forest. No matter how much he struggled, he could not cut down the small tree. Tired, he went aside to rest. The lion approached the tree and easily uprooted it.
“Old man, you said you were stronger than me.” How come you couldn’t cope with such a tree? - the lion was surprised.
The old man realized that the lion had figured out his deception. He was not at a loss and said:
-Oh, lion, I cheated to see if you could pull out this tree. For several days now our food supplies have run out, and I am going to go lion hunting again. I think three or four lions will be enough. That's when you will be convinced of my strength.
The lion trembled with fear and thought that if the old man's hunt was unsuccessful, he would eat him. It's better to run while you're still alive. At night the lion ran away and hid in the thicket of the forest. Suddenly a fox ran out to meet him.
- Brother fox, why are you running? - asked the lion. - Is the old man coming?
- What old man? — the fox was surprised.
The lion told the fox about how the old man squeezed juice out of the stone, how he hunts lions, how he became the lion's master. The fox laughed:
- Oh, you fool, the old man deceived you, where did he get his strength from? Once you roar once, the old man’s heart will jump out of fear. Let's go to the old man and kill him. I'll eat your leftovers, that's enough for me.
The lion went with the fox. The old man noticed the lion and the fox from afar, realized that the fox had explained everything to the lion, and if this time he didn’t come up with something, trouble would come. The old man began to shout from a distance:
“Oh, shameless fox, I instructed you to bring a fat lion, and this time you brought a skinny one.” Well, it’s okay, I’ll kill and eat this one, but if you do that again, I’ll skin you.
The lion heard the old man's threat and decided that the fox had lured him into a trap. He ran away and was the only one they saw.
“You see, son,” said the old man, “not only strength is important.” The main thing is intelligence and ingenuity. And if they exist, you are not afraid of any enemy.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru