There lived two brothers - a trickster and a fool. Every day they had to get food for their parents. One day they went together to the river to catch fish, which remain on the shore during low tide and gnaw at the roots of trees. The fool caught and stunned the fish, but the trickster still couldn’t do it.
He approached the fool and asked:
- Stupid, did you catch anything?
And he answers:
“Yes, trickster, even though I’m a fool, but you see, I caught it.”
Dodger says:
- You really are a fool! I probably saw that I was catching a fish that was swimming in your direction, and I grabbed it quickly! This is my fish! Give it to me.
There is nothing to do, the fool gave his fish to the trickster. They went home, and the dodger said to his father:
- Look, father, what a huge fish I caught. But the fool didn’t bring anything.
The mother cut up and cooked the fish, the father and the trickster ate, but not a piece was left for the fool.
The next day the brothers went fishing again, and the fool quickly caught a fish. And the trickster asks:
- Did you hear me shoot with a bow?
“No,” the fool answers.
The Dodger turned to him in surprise.
- That's so great! Look, there at your feet lies the fish that I shot!
“Well, okay,” says the fool. - Take this fish for yourself.
They returned home and gave the fish to their mother. She cooked it, and again the father and the clever son began to eat the delicious dish, but the fool was not even invited to the table. Suddenly a large bone got stuck in my father’s throat. The trickster called his brother and told him to run for the doctor. But he refused to go and sang:
Every day you eat my fish, you call me a fool, you don’t give me fish, and you want me to help you!
The trickster exclaimed:
- How can you sing when your father is suffering?
But the fool continued:
You ate and ate to your fullest, There is a bone stuck in your throat, Soon your death will come. There is a bone stuck in your throat! But your beloved son is a cunning one, He caught a lot of fish for you, father, And I am still starving. But now your end is approaching, And then, perhaps, the fool will eat?
While the fool was singing, the father died. Relatives and neighbors came running, and everyone attacked the fool: how dare he sing when his father was dying? And the fool replied:
- My father had two of us - a trickster and a fool. But only the fool caught fish and fed his parents, and the trickster appropriated all the spoils for himself and starved his brother. Father believed one trickster. Therefore, you should not be angry with a fool for singing when his father is suffering. After all, he suffered too, but no one took pity on him.
And the people, having learned the whole story, decided that the fool was right, and the father was rightly punished for not giving his son food.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru