One day a hungry wolf was wandering along the road in search of food and, seeing a horse grazing in a meadow, said to it:
- Horse, I will eat you.
“Well, eat,” said the horse. “Just first read what’s written on my hoof.”
The wolf began to examine what was written on the horse’s hoof. And as soon as the horse kicked him on the head with its hoof, our wolf rolled across the grass.
Meanwhile, the horse disappeared.
The wolf woke up, wandered on and groaned:
- I have never been literate. And what devil managed to read what was written on the hoof?
Here comes a wolf and meets a hunter's dog.
“Dog, I’ll eat you,” he says.
“Okay, eat it,” the dog answers. “Just help me get the prey I brought from the bushes first: I’m getting old myself—I can’t see well.”
“Okay,” the wolf agrees.
The dog led the wolf into the thicket of bushes, where its owner-hunter had hidden a trap, and a bait was thrown near it - a piece of old beef.
“Here, look in the bushes,” says the dog.
The wolf foolishly climbed into the bushes for meat and got his foot into a trap. And the dog rushed home as fast as he could to bring his hunter owner with him.
It was only then that the wolf realized what trouble he was in; He gnawed his paw and ran away forcibly on three legs to his lair, scolding himself on the way:
- I'm a fool, a fool. And why did you listen to the dog?
Some time has passed. The wolf got hungry again and went to look for food. He wandered around the village and saw: pigs were rummaging on the outskirts of the barn. A wolf came up to them and said:
- Pigs, I will eat you.
“If you want, eat,” the pigs answer. - Just listen to us sing songs first.
“Well, sing, and I’ll listen,” the wolf agrees.
The pigs began to circle around the fence and made such a deafening squeal that people came running with sticks and, seeing the wolf, began to beat him.
The wolf struggled free and barely dragged his legs.
As he ran away, he again began to scold himself for his mistake.
“And rightly so,” he says, “for me, a gray fool.” But I won’t listen to anyone’s words anymore and I’ll eat the first one I come across alive.
And a man comes across him - carrying firewood from the forest.
- Well, now I’ll eat you! - says the wolf. And he really tries to rush at a person.
“Well, eat, I’m ready,” says the man. “Only it’s inconvenient for you to eat me on earth: my dogs will hear, they’ll come running and take me away.” Isn't that right?
“Yes,” the wolf answers.
- Here you go. And so that no one bothers you, we’ll both climb the tree. There you will eat me.
“Okay,” the wolf agrees.
The man quickly climbed the tree and shouted to the wolf:
- Climb up too!
“I can’t climb,” the wolf answers. - Claws don't take.
And the man already knew this.
“Okay,” he replies. “Here, I’ll throw you a rope from above, you stick your head into it, and I’ll drag you up.”
The man made a noose at the end of the rope and threw it to the wolf. The wolf quickly stuck his head through the noose and shouted to the man:
- Pull!
A man jumped out of the tree, grabbed the end of the rope and pulled the wolf up. The noose pulled the wolf's neck tightly, and then death came to him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru