Having acquired a nut somewhere, a satisfied crow flew to the bell tower. Having made herself comfortable there and holding the prey with her paw, she began to furiously peck with her beak to get to the tasty grain. But either the blow was too strong, or the crow made a mistake, the nut suddenly slipped out of her paw, rolled down and disappeared into a crevice in the wall.
- Oh, kind intercessor wall! - the nut sobbed tearfully, still not recovering from the cruel blows of the crow’s beak. - Don’t let me die, have pity on me! You are so strong and majestic, you have such a beautiful bell tower. Don't drive me away!
The bells hummed dully and disapprovingly, warning the wall not to trust the insidious nut, as it could turn out to be dangerous for it.
- Don’t leave me, orphan, in trouble! - the nut continued to lament, trying to shout over the angry roar of the bells. “I was about to leave my birth branch and fall on the damp ground, when suddenly the villainess appeared. Finding myself in the beak of a voracious crow, I made a vow to myself: if I managed to avoid death, I would spend the rest of my days quietly and calmly in some hole.
The nut's passionate speeches moved the old wall to tears. Despite the warning of the bells, she decided to show the nut hospitality and leave it in the crack where it had rolled.
However, over time, the nut recovered from the fright, got comfortable and took root, and they began to bite into the hospitable wall. Soon the first shoots emerged from the crevice. Together they stretched upward and gained strength. A little more time passed, and the young shoots of the hazel tree were already proudly towering above the bell tower itself. The wall especially suffered from the roots. Tenacious and assertive, they grew more and more, crushing and loosening the old masonry, and mercilessly pushing bricks and stones away.
Too late, the wall realized how insidious the unprepossessing, pathetic nut turned out to be with his vows to live quieter than water and lower than the grass. Now she had no choice but to reproach herself for her gullibility and bitterly regret that at one time she had not listened to the voice of the wise bells.
The hazel tree continued to grow with proud indifference, and the bell tower was increasingly destroyed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru