Once upon a time there lived a jackal in the forest. He did nasty things to everyone. Once, at the very end of winter, he decided to run into the village. He ran and ran around the yards, and he got thirsty. The well was not far away. But how can a jackal get a drink when he has neither a bucket nor a rope? He stuck his muzzle into the well, but the water was low, he couldn’t reach it - and that’s all. The jackal got angry. “Okay!” he thinks. “I’ll take it and set this water on fire. Let it burn.” He ran to the village again and brought fire.
I returned to the well - and there were people there. They slaughtered a kid and were about to cook dinner. Next to them stood a bucket of water. The jackal came up and drank. People asked the jackal for fire. “I’ll give them fire,” the jackal thinks. “Look, I’ll get a bone and a piece of meat for this.”
He gave fire to people. They lit a fire and roasted a kid. They began to divide the meat. The jackal is right there - waiting for his share. But they didn’t give him a single piece. The jackal couldn’t stand it and asked:
- Brothers! Give me the leg.
“Aren’t your legs enough for you?” Look how many of them you have!
- Well, at least give me your head.
- You don’t have your own, do you? There you have it!
Whatever the jackal asks, he is answered with ridicule.
The jackal got angry:
“Then give me my fire,” he says.
Well, people here are not averse to it - they gave him fire. The jackal took the fire and ran to the threshing floor. And these people came to the well from the threshing floor - they were threshing peas. A jackal ran there and set fire to a pile of straw. A light creeps along dry pea stalks and crackles. The jackal waited and waited until the fire engulfed the entire haystack, and then he screamed at the top of his voice so that people could hear: Who eats me-me! Knock-knock is on fire! Who eats me-me! Knock-knock is on fire!
People didn't understand what he meant at first. They sit quietly and eat meat. But the jackal doesn’t stop. Then one came to his senses.
- After all, he is the one calling us. “Who eats me-me” - we eat the kid. And “knock-knock” is about peas. This is how peas make a sound when they fall. No other way than he set fire to the threshing floor, the demonic spawn. Let's run to put it out quickly!
The people threw the meat and ran to the threshing floor. And the jackal returned to the well and ate his fill.
No, it's better not to be greedy. When someone asks for something, it is better to give it to him right away. Otherwise, the same misfortune would not have happened to you as to those people who regretted throwing a piece of goat meat to the jackal.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru