Once upon a time there lived a woodcutter and his wife. Every day the woodcutter went up the mountain into the forest with a rope and an ax. There he chopped wood, tied it up and took it to the market to sell. With the money from the sale of firewood, the woodcutter bought everything he needed.
One day in the forest, a woodcutter felled a dry juniper tree and began to chop it for firewood. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a terrible bear appeared and approached the woodcutter.
The woodcutter was very frightened and thought: “Now this bear will eat me!” - and he already began to say goodbye to life. But unexpectedly the bear did nothing to him and only asked:
- Hey, man, I see with what backbreaking labor you climb here, knock down and split trees. Tell me, why do you need this?
“I take the firewood to the market, sell it, and with this money I feed my wife.”
“If so,” said the bear, “don’t suffer anymore in vain.” It costs me nothing to prepare a bundle of firewood every day and carry it to the foot of the mountain. You come and take ready-made firewood.
The next day the woodcutter came to the forest and indeed found a ready-made bundle of firewood at the appointed place. Delighted, he loaded the wood onto his back and left.
This went on for several days. The woodcutter thought: “The bear does me so much good that I must repay him in kind.” And he said to his wife:
- Prepare good food for me when I come home today, I’ll bring my friend.
The woodcutter went into the forest, found a bear there and invited him to visit him. The bear did not agree to go, but the woodcutter began to beg him and finally persuaded him to go.
Talking about this and that, they approached the woodcutter's house. The wife went out to greet the guest and saw that her husband had come with a big scary bear.
- Oh, trouble! - exclaimed the wife. “Can this terrible bear be your friend?!”
Hearing such offensive words, the bear became very angry and said to the woodcutter:
- Hit me on the head with your axe!
“My wife shouldn’t have said this, but she doesn’t know who you are yet, don’t be upset!” - the woodcutter said to the bear, wanting to make amends for his wife’s words.
“I say, hit me on the head with your ax!” - the bear shouted. “If you don’t hit me, I’ll kill you both, I’ll destroy your house!”
The woodcutter got scared and thought: “If I don’t hit him with an axe, this stubborn bear will do what he has in mind.”
“Okay, what to do,” said the woodcutter and hit the bear with all his might in the very middle of the top of the head. The bloody bear jumped out of the woodcutter's yard and ran away.
The woodcutter was sure that with such a deep wound the bear would not survive. And wanting to forget this incident, he began to go for firewood further than his previous place.
The long road tormented the woodcutter greatly, and he began to persuade himself: “Why am I torturing myself, after all, the bear died! It’s better for me to go to my old place again!”
The woodcutter came to the old place and just began to fell a tree, when suddenly the old bear appeared near him. The woodcutter froze in place in surprise. He began to peer at the top of the bear’s head, but there was no trace of the wound he had inflicted on it.
“Here, buddy,” the bear spoke, “you see, not a trace remains of the ax wound.” Yes, the wound from your ax has healed, but the wound from your wife’s hurtful words does not heal in my heart. And today, when I heard the sound of your axe, the wound in my heart was reopened!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru