A wolf came out of the forest. I looked and saw a sheep grazing in the meadow.
“How dare you trample my meadow!” the wolf growled.
“The meadow is not yours at all, but my shepherd’s,” the ram calmly answered.
“Your shepherd wasn’t even alive when this meadow became mine.”
- No, no, I know very well that this is my shepherd’s meadow. Our flock always grazes here,” the ram objected.
The wolf got angry, he was ready to tear the ram to pieces, but restrained himself. “Today I’m full. Let him live until tomorrow, then he will be useful to me,” he thought.
“Listen, ram,” said the wolf, “let’s do this: come here tomorrow, and whoever of us swears by that bush that the meadow belongs to him, then it will remain.” Agree?
“I agree,” answered the ram.
And they went in different directions: the wolf returned to the forest, and the ram to the village.
Early in the morning the ram went out into the meadow, but not alone, but with his friend, a large wolfhound. The dog hid behind a bush, and the ram began to pluck the grass.
Soon the wolf ran out of the forest. He saw the ram and was happy: “A good lunch awaits me.” The wolf was not alone either. He met a fox in the thicket. He told where he was in a hurry, and the fox undertook to confirm that the meadow belonged to the wolf. The wolf promised her a leg of lamb as a reward.
A wolf and a fox approached the ram, and the wolf asked:
- Well? Will you still insist today that this is your shepherd’s meadow?
“So it is,” answered the ram.
- Oh, sheep, you’re not ashamed to lie! - the fox said reproachfully. “It has long been known that this is the meadow of a venerable wolf, and not a shepherd.”
- Who did you hear about this from? - asks the ram.
Lisa pretended to be offended:
— How—from whom? Yes, everyone will tell you about this, ask anyone you want. Even when I was very little, my parents, father and mother, often mentioned this meadow: “There are a lot of mice in Wolf Meadow,” they said. Judge for yourself, if the meadow belonged to a shepherd, would it be called Wolf?
- Will you swear that you are telling the truth? - asked the ram.
- Why not? “If you please,” answered the fox, “in what place should you take the oath?”
— The wolf chose the place yesterday. Do you see the bush? Go up to him, put your paw on the branches and say: “I swear that this is a wolf’s meadow.”
The fox approached the bush itself, but noticed that someone’s eyes were sparkling behind the branches. She leaned back and said in a trembling voice:
- To tell the truth, I remember that my parents also called the shepherd when they talked about this meadow. But I can’t say for sure whose it is. I don’t want to take an oath in vain. Now, if the wolf swears, then I won’t refuse.
“Good helper,” the angry wolf pushed the fox aside:
“I knew you didn’t remember anything.” Now I will swear myself.
He put his paw on the branch and just said, “I swear...” - a dog jumped out from behind the bush, grabbed the wolf with its teeth and began to chatter. The wolf forcibly broke free and began to run without looking back.
And the fox has been waiting for him for a long time at the very edge of the forest and says to the wolf:
“You shouldn’t be offended, wolf.” As soon as I saw the dog, I immediately remembered that this was not your meadow, but the shepherd’s.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru