A man was walking along the road with an empty bag over his shoulders. Suddenly he saw a wounded leopard in the thickets. Leonard asked the man:
- Please hide me in your bag.
“And you promise that you won’t eat me later?” – the man asked.
The Leopard swore that he would not do this. Then the man put him in a sack, put him on his back like a bundle of brushwood, and carried him away.
Soon he met people looking for the leopard. One of them asked the traveler:
“My brother, tell me, have you seen a leopard passing here?”
“No, I didn’t see it,” he answered. When the people they met left without guessing anything, the man let the leopard out of the bag.
“Man, you won’t leave me,” said the leopard, “I’ll eat you!”
- Why, Mr. Leopard, do you want to eat me? - asked the traveler. - After all, I saved you from death! Didn't you hear what those people said? I kept my promise, but you are breaking our agreement. If you want to eat me, let's go to court; let your relatives judge us.
Domestic animals and wild animals gathered for the trial. The hyena began to speak first.
“It seems to me that a person should be eaten,” she said.
And all the animals who spoke after her declared with one voice:
- The person must be eaten.
Finally it was the monkey's turn.
“Show me how you saved the leopard,” she said.
The man opened the bag and put the leopard in it.
“Okay,” said the monkey, “now tie the bag.”
The man did this too.
“Now,” said the monkey, “pierce him once with a spear and show me; then I will tell you my opinion.
The man pierced the bag with a spear and killed the ungrateful leopard.
That’s what the proverb says: don’t take a leopard by the tail, and if you take it, don’t let it go.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru