Once upon a time, there lived a cat, a goat, and a sheep. They lived together peacefully. They even shared a bale of hay equally. Only the cat was mischievous. He was very naughty and a thief. Whatever he saw unattended, he would quickly steal it.
One day, the grey cat came crying. The goat and the sheep asked him:
– Oh, grey-faced cat, why are you crying, why are you running like this?
The cat told them:
– How can I not cry? The lady of the house beat me, pulled my ears, broke my arm, and even wanted to strangle me.
– And what did you do to bring this trouble upon yourself? – asked the goat and the sheep.
– Nothing, I just accidentally ate the sour cream from the shelf.
– Oh, you thief! It serves you right. Why were you stealing the sour cream?!
The cat cried again:
– The lady of the house kept beating me and saying, "When my guest comes, where will I get sour cream for them? I'll have to unwillingly slaughter the goat and the sheep to set a table for my guest."
At this, the goat and the sheep also began to cry:
– Oh, you grey cat, you naughty cat! Why did you bring this trouble upon us?
They sat down, thought for a while, pondered, and decided that all three of them should run away from home. Waiting for the yard gate to open, they all ran away at the first opportunity.
The cat, goat, and sheep ran a lot, crossed hills, passed through sandy areas, and became very tired. They decided to spend the night in a field where the grass had been cut and stacked into haystacks. The night was very cold; they needed to find fire and light a bonfire to warm up. The cat found birch bark, wrapped it around the goat's horn, and told the goat and sheep to butt heads. The goat and sheep ran and hit their horns together, and sparks flew from their eyes from the collision. The tree bark caught fire from the sparks. Without much thought, the grey cat lit a haystack and said:
– Look, now we will finally get warm.
They hadn't even warmed up properly when an unexpected guest – the bear Mikhailo Potapich Toptigin – came to the bonfire.
– Brothers, let me warm up a bit too, and rest, I am terribly tired.
The cat said:
– Welcome, brother bear, come on in! Where are you coming from, where are you going?
– I went to collect honey, I met some villagers who keep bees, I had a bit of a fight with them, that's why I'm troubled.
The friends decided to spend the night together. The goat and the sheep stayed around the bonfire, the cat climbed onto the haystack, and the bear went under the haystack.
The bear was sleeping, and the goat and sheep were dozing. Only the cat wasn't sleeping, he was looking around. Suddenly, the cat saw seven wolves coming towards them. Six were grey, and their leader was white. The white wolf said to the goat and the sheep:
– Who are you? Come, let's test our strength!
The goat and the sheep became terribly scared after these words. To get out of the situation, the cat said:
– Brother White Wolf, leader of the wolves, don't wake up our leader and make him angry. If he gets angry, he won't spare anyone. Don't you see his long beard? His strength is in it. He beats all animals with his beard and skins them with his horn. It's best to approach him kindly and ask permission to play with your little brother sleeping under the haystack.
The wolves, getting permission from the goat, started playing with the bear sleeping under the haystack. The bear had gathered strength while sleeping, woke up, and dug each claw into a wolf's throat. The wolves began to howl. With great difficulty, they escaped from the bear's grasp, tucked their tails between their legs, and ran away.
While the bear was beating the wolves, the goat and the sheep took the cat on their backs and quickly returned home. They said:
– Enough of wandering aimlessly! Let's go back before something bad happens to us.
The farmer and his wife were happy that the goat and the sheep had returned. But the cat was thoroughly punished for his cunning and naughtiness.
