There lived an old man and an old woman. They had two sons and two daughters-in-law. They lived very poorly, and they had no livestock except a goat. Once the old man sent his youngest daughter-in-law to take the goat into the forest and pick leaves for it so that it would not die of hunger. The daughter-in-law went into the forest. But soon the goat returned and bleated in front of the house: “Me-he-he-he!”
An old man comes out and asks what’s wrong with him and why he returned home. And the goat answers:
“You sent your daughter-in-law to graze me on the grass, and she put a noose on my face - I couldn’t eat.”
The old man sent another daughter-in-law, then his youngest son and finally the eldest, but each time the goat returned and said the same thing. Then the old woman went. She took the chaff in her mitten, went and scattered it behind her, luring the goat. The goat followed her while chaff fell out of the mitten, and when all the chaff came out, he ran home again and began to bleat pitifully:
"Me-he-he-he!"
The old man asks what's wrong with him, and the goat answers:
“You sent the old woman to pick leaves, and I would devour the branches.”
She stuck the bars into my throat - I couldn’t gnaw.
The old man believed that the goat was telling the truth and went with him. And the goat did the same to him. Then the old man got angry, came home, slaughtered the goat, skinned it, salted it, put it on a spit and set it to roast over the fire. And the goat jumped off the spit - and well, he ran, and ended up right in the fox’s hole. The fox was not at home at that time. She returns and hears that there is someone in the house. She was afraid to enter and, sad, walked away. A hare meets her and asks why she is so sad. The fox tells him that someone broke into her house and she is afraid to enter there.
“Let’s go together and see who’s there,” says the hare.
Went. They approach the hole, the hare shouts:
- Hey! Who's sitting in your aunt's hole?
And the goat answers:
- I am a goat, peeled, cut alive, half-cut, salted alive, half-salted, fried alive, half-done! My teeth are like stakes - I’ll gnaw you like a thread!
The hare and the fox got scared and God bless their legs. On the way they meet a wolf, a bear and a lion. They ask why they are running. Seeing such strong animals, the fox and the hare stopped and told everything as it happened. They set off together to bring their aunt into her house. But in vain: the goat responded to them in the same way as to the hare. They became sad and began to wander around the field. A hedgehog met them, and they told him everything. Yozh says:
- Let me go try my luck. I'll see who's there.
Again everyone approached the hole, and the hedgehog shouted:
- Hey! Who's there in your aunt's hole?
And the goat answers:
- I am a goat, peeled, cut alive, half-cut, salted alive, half-salted, fried alive, half-done! My teeth are like stakes - I’ll gnaw you like a thread!
And the hedgehog responded:
- I'm a hedgehog, the head of the whole village! How I’ll curl up into a ball and how I’ll give you a blow!
Then the goat jumped out and ran away.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru