Listening
Why the hair has no tail
Long, long ago the animals had no tails or very small ones. One day the God asked all the animals to come to him to get good tails. It was cold that day and it was raining. The hair had only a short little tail, but he did not like to go out and said to the other animals, “Please, bring me a tail. I can’t go anywhere when it rains.”
“What tail do you want to have?” the animals asked him.
“Oh, any tail will be good for me. But it must not be too long and too short.”
Some time later the animals come back, and each animal had a beautiful tail. But nobody brought a tail for the hair. I think that some of them forgot about the hair, some had no time, some could not find a good tail for the hair.
But I know this: if you must do something, don’t ask others to do it for you. Don’t forget about the hair with his short little tail!
The money in the pot of butter
A man had to go on a long travel. He hid his money in the pot and put butter over it. So nobody could see what was there under the butter in the pot. Then he took the pot to his neighbour and said: “Please, keep this pot of butter for me till I come back.” He did not say anything about the money in the pot.
A month passed, but the traveller did not come back. His neighbour thought: ”I’m afraid the butte in the pot is bad.” And he took all the butter out of the pot and saw money there. He took the money for himself and put many small stones into the pot in place of the money.
When the traveller come back, he asked his neighbour for the pot. He carried it home and took out all the butter. He wanted to take the money, but he found only many small stones under the butter. He was very angry. Then one of his friends came to see him. “You look angry, my friend! Why are you angry?” asked his friend.
“Oh, I am a silly man!” And he told him the story about the pot of butter, the money and the small stones. “Well, I can show you how to get your money back. Let us go to the forest.”
And the two friends went to the forest, caught a monkey there and brought it home.
“Now you go to your nieghbour and say: ” Please let your son come with me to the market. He help me to bring food from the market.”
The man did so. The neighbor sent his son to the man. But they did not go to the market. The man went home with the neighbour’s son and locked the boy in his house. The friend said: “Now go to your neighbor with the monkey and say: “Here is your son.” The man did so. The neighbor was very angry. “Take the money away and bring back my son!” he said. “Why, this is your son! If money can turn into small stones, then a boy can turn into a monkey.”
The neighbor understood everything. He brought the money, and the man let the boy go back to his father. The man thanked his clever friend very much. He wanted to give him a part of the money, but his friend didn’t take it.
“We are friends, aren’t we?” he said “And friends always help each other, but never take money for that. Never!”
