Man, the lord over all living creatures in the world, allowed the dog to accompany him on the road, guard his house and household, and help him in every way. Dogs were quite proud of these rights, and cats were very jealous of them. And then the cats convened a council and decided to take away these rights from the dogs. As they decided, so they did. They seized the opportunity, stole the letter with the dog's rights written on parchment*, and hid it in the pantry under a pile of rags.
And the mouse, who was looking for something to eat in the pantry, found the parchment and happily ran to her sisters to tell them what an important letter she had found. The mice gathered here for their council, judged, discussed how they too could have such rights, but they could not come to an agreement, and then the eldest mouse stood up and said:
- My dear sisters, I think so - let’s eat the parchment with those important rights, so they will remain with us, and no one will take them away from us. I can't think of anything better.
The mice were delighted, agreed and immediately threw a noble feast, eating all the dog’s privileges to the last morsel.
Time passed, the canine council gathered, and the keeper of the parchment was asked to present it to the glorious assembly for review. There is nowhere to go, the keeper admitted that the precious parchment was stolen by cats, he knows about it for sure. The dogs set loose on the cats so that they would kindly return the dogs' rights. At first the cats refused, but when the dogs attacked them, they promised to give the parchment back. They reached into the pantry, but the parchment was gone. Here the cats began to attack the mice, they say, to the secret place under a pile of rags, where the parchment was hidden, no one except the mice had access, it turns out that the mice stole the letter. And where would the mice get that parchment, if they ate it at the instigation of their elder sister, and from that parchment they made a noble treat for themselves.
Since that time, dogs and cats have lived in fierce enmity with each other, and the dogs never let the cats off the hook. The cats, again because of the harassment they have to endure from dogs, swore not to let the mice go.
This is how it is in the world - dogs bark at cats, and cats harass mice.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru