Once upon a time there lived a king, the ruler of all life on earth. People, animals, birds, and fish served at his court. And one of the courtiers was a cormorant. This bird was very proud of its beauty. The cormorant strutted around the royal palace, waving its long tail. And his tail was most wonderful, with a forked tip, all covered in black spots, as was the rest of his plumage.
One day the king ordered all his subjects to come to the court and appear before him. And then the gudgeon, heading to the throne room, saw a cormorant standing at the entrance. The gudgeon's heart sank: after all, the cormorant eats fish and loves gudgeons more than anything else in the world! But remembering that in the capital city everyone was strictly ordered to maintain peace, the gudgeon calmed down. And the cormorant even began to salivate at the sight of such a delicacy. However, he knew that he would be accused of treason and executed if he even touched the minnow. And yet, timidity and uncertainty, which could not be ignored in the gaze and movements of the gudgeon, pushed the cormorant to scare him. The cormorant stared at the gudgeon, and when it looked at it in fear, it suddenly winked with its left eye. The gudgeon screamed loudly and, running out of the royal palace, rushed at full speed to his home. But the poor fish was immediately captured and accused of treason.
“Why did you disturb the order and leave the palace without my permission?” - the king asked menacingly.
“Your Majesty,” answered the gudgeon, “my sworn enemy, the cormorant, standing at the entrance to the throne room, looked in my direction as if he was going to eat me.”
Since a thorough investigation confirmed the minnow's words, he was pardoned. The cormorant, for scaring the poor fish, was ordered to hold a feast in honor of the gudgeon that same evening.
The cormorant arranged a feast and treated the gudgeon with various wines so cordially that he fell down and fell asleep. Then the insidious cormorant tore off his tail and hid it in the branches of a tree. He wanted to feast on them when they stopped looking for him.
And the gudgeon, waking up in the morning, discovered the loss and cried bitterly. The cormorant assured him that the tail was stolen by thieves, of whom there are so many in the city. However, the gudgeon, knowing well the insidious habits of the cormorant, did not heed his arguments and went to court.
After hearing the witnesses, the court decided that since the owner is responsible for the life and property of the guest, the cormorant is obliged to compensate for the damage caused to the gudgeon by giving him his tail, which was immediately cut off and placed on the stump of the gudgeon's tail. That is why the tip of the gudgeon's tail is forked and covered with black spots, which it does not have anywhere else on its body. But the cormorant did not dare to remove the tail stolen from the gudgeon from the tree and use it instead of his own. After all, then everyone would know that he is a thief.
This is why the cormorant to this day does not have a tail.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru