When I was little, I was a mischievous child who loved hunting birds. I would run after birds in gardens, try to catch them, and steal eggs from their nests. Once, in a garden, I saw a bird on a tree branch that I had never encountered before. When I approached, the bird flew away, but, of course, I wondered if there was a nest where it had been. There was no nest, but there was a hollow in the tree trunk.
My hand didn't fit into the hollow. I was very curious about what was inside. I ran home and took my father's favorite knife. I wanted to carve around the hollow to widen it enough to put my hand inside. The tree trunk was hard and difficult to carve with the knife. Suddenly, the knife slipped from my hand and fell into the hole.
I was very scared because I had lost the knife. Because when my father came home in the evening, he would find out the knife was lost and would be furious. Although I tried to get the knife out of the hollow, my hand couldn't reach it. I couldn't go home either. What would my father say in the evening? I decided to run away. I started wandering around. I moved away from home, but I didn't know what to do or where to go. A little later, it started to get dark. My stomach was rumbling from hunger, I was cold, and I was afraid of the dark. To protect myself from wild animals, I wanted to climb a tree and spend the night there. Towards midnight, I heard sounds. When I looked down, I couldn't believe my eyes! Twelve robbers had gathered under a tree and were lighting a fire. They had slaughtered a large sheep and prepared a feast for themselves. They had wine in a small barrel. They were drinking, laughing, saying offensive words, and talking about the robberies they had committed.
I was very scared. I was even afraid to breathe so they wouldn't see me. But suddenly, I had a coughing fit... No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hold it in. When they heard my voice, they saw me and grabbed me by the collar, pulling me down.
The twelve robbers surrounded me. One of them immediately said:
– Let's kill this boy. He has heard all our words.
But the older one objected:
– I have a better idea. Let's wait until morning, and when the wine in this barrel is finished, we'll hide the boy inside it.
Soon, the robbers' wine ran out, and they put me inside the barrel. I was trembling from both cold and fear. They, however, had long been drunk. After a while, a fox appeared, drawn by the smell of meat and bones. As the fox gnawed on the bones and wandered around, its tail suddenly went through the barrel's hole. I immediately grabbed onto its tail.
The startled fox quickly started to run. I certainly wouldn't let go of its tail! The fox ran straight in the direction of our house. In front of our house, I let go of the fox's tail. The barrel rolled and rolled, crashed against our house wall, and broke into pieces. I also fell right in front of the house door.
My mother, who opened the door, was astonished when she saw me and said she had been looking for me with the villagers.
If the barrel hadn't rolled all the way to our house, my father would still be looking for me.
I apologized to my father for losing his knife. From that day on, I never harmed birds again.
