Rabbit and the grain buyers

Rabbit and the grain buyers

Once upon a time, Rabbit really wanted to become a respectable merchant.

He watched Bee carry honey, Duck bring eggs to the fair, the neighbors exchange berries for flour, and flour for warm mittens, and thought:

“Everyone sells something. Why shouldn’t I? But I don’t want to work from morning until night. I must think of something cleverer.”

Rabbit loved the word "smarter." True, sometimes he called smart what was really just cunning.

Not far from his hole lay a large field. On it was a crop of grain grown by a hardworking farmer. Rabbit often ran past and saw how the owner watered the young shoots, pulled out weeds, repaired the fence and waited for the harvest.

And one morning an idea struck Rabbit.

“There is so much grain here that you can’t count it! I’ll sell a little. And when it’s time to give it to buyers, I’ll come up with something.”

He didn’t ask the farmer for permission. He didn’t make an agreement with him. He didn’t even think that someone else’s field doesn’t become yours just because you look at it.

Rabbit put up a sign by the road:

“THE BEST GRAIN!

Order today — pick it up in a week!”

Earthworm came first.

“I’ll have just a little,” he said. “For the family.”

“You shall have it!” Rabbit promised solemnly, accepting the payment.

Then Duck came.

“I’ll have a bag of grain, please.”

“You shall have the finest bag!”

Fox came after Duck. Then Bear. And in the evening Hunter came who wanted to buy grain for his poultry.

Rabbit smiled at everyone, bowed to everyone, and repeated to everyone:

“Come back in exactly a week. I am a man… pardon me, a rabbit of my word!”

In the evening he counted what he had received and was very proud of himself.

“Now that is business! My back doesn’t ache, and my paws are still clean.”

But the next morning the farmer was already waiting for him near the field.

“Rabbit,” he said calmly, “I saw your sign yesterday.”

“It's beautiful, isn't it? I wrote it myself.”

“Beautiful. Only the grain in the field is mine. I sowed it and grew it. You can't sell what doesn't belong to you.”

Rabbit twitched his ears.

“And if only a little bit?”

“You should have asked first.”

The farmer closed the gate and went on working.

Rabbit sat down under a bush.

Now he had five buyers, five promises, and no grain.

“I must give the payments back,” a little voice inside him whispered.

“I must think of a cleverer trick,” Rabbit immediately told himself.

Unfortunately, he listened to the second thought.

A week passed.

Earthworm was the first to arrive, crawling up at the appointed time.

“Is my grain ready?”

Rabbit looked around and noticed that Duck was already coming along the road.

“Quiet!” he whispered to Earthworm. “Hide under a leaf. Duck is angry and looking for you.”

“Why?”

“I will explain later!”

Earthworm got scared and hid.

Duck came closer.

“Rabbit, where is my bag?”

Rabbit leaned over to her:

"I would gladly give it to you, but Worm was here just now. He said you wanted to take his grain."

“What?” Duck cried indignantly. “I never said any such thing!”

She started looking for Worm to find out everything. He heard her footsteps, decided that Rabbit had told the truth, and crawled away as fast as he could.

Just at that moment, Fox came out from behind the hill.

“Is my order ready?”

Rabbit quickly whispered:

“Careful! Duck is running here and telling everyone that you took her grain.”

“Me?!”

Fox rushed to Duck to find out who said what. Duck saw Fox, remembered Rabbit’s words and decided that she really came to quarrel. And in a minute they were both running around the bushes, interrupting each other:

“I didn’t say that!”

“They told me!”

“Who said that?”

Rabbit quietly retreated to his hole.

But then Bear came.

“Good afternoon. I’ve come for my grain.”

“Shhh!” Rabbit put on his most serious expression. “Fox is angry. She says you took her sack.”

“But I haven't even seen mine yet!”

Bear moved towards Fox. Fox saw the big Bear and also decided that something bad had happened.

Everything became even louder.

And then Hunter came up.

“Rabbit, I've come to get my order.”

“Oh, this is a bad moment!” Rabbit whispered. “Bear is terribly angry. You had better tap a tree with your stick to make him move away from the road.”

Hunter didn't understand what was happening, but he tapped loudly on the dry trunk.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Bear shuddered.

Duck quacked.

Fox jumped up.

Earthworm peeped out from beneath the leaf.

And suddenly everyone stopped.

“Wait a moment,” Duck said. “Who said I was angry with Earthworm?”

“Rabbit,” Earthworm replied.

“And who said Duck was blaming me?” asked Fox.

“Rabbit,” said Duck.

“And he told me that Fox was angry with me,” muttered Bear.

Hunter lowered his stick.

Everyone slowly turned their heads towards Rabbit hole.

Only the tip of one ear was sticking out of the hole.

“Rabbit,” called Bear. “Come out.”

“Rabbit is not at home!” came a voice from the hole.

“And who said that?”

A pause.

“His… very distant relative.”

Even the angry Fox couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Rabbit realized that another trick wouldn't help. He climbed out of his hole, sat down in front of everyone, and lowered his ears.

"There's no grain," he admitted. "I sold you someone else's grain without asking the farmer. And when I realized that I couldn't keep my promise, I decided to make you quarrel among yourselves. I'm very ashamed."

“What about our payments?” Earthworm asked.

Rabbit sighed.

"I'll give it all back. But not today. I've already spent some of it."

Just then, the farmer came along the road and overheard those last words.

"There's a way to fix it," he said. "It's time to harvest the field. If Rabbit really wants to pay back his debts, let him work with me."

Rabbit looked at the field. It suddenly seemed to him three times bigger than it had been a week ago.

“How long must I work?”

“Until you fulfill all your promises.”

Rabbit sighed heavily.

“Agreed.”

And a completely different trade began.

In the mornings, Rabbit carried empty baskets. In the afternoons, he helped gather the ears of grain. In the evenings, he counted the little sacks and checked how much he owed each buyer.

Earthworm received his share first, followed by Duck, Fox, Bear, and Hunter.

When he handed over the last sack, Rabbit flopped onto the grass and stretched out his paws.

“Oh! Now I know why honest merchants sleep so well at night.”

The farmer smiled.

“And what did you understand?”

Rabbit thought.

“Cleverness is useful. But if you use it to escape responsibility for your promises, it soon becomes a tangle of trouble.”

From then on, before selling anything, Rabbit asked himself three questions:

“Is it mine? Can I keep my promise? Will I end up hiding in my own burrow?”

They say that after that he became a good merchant.

And he kept the sign "THE BEST GRAIN!" as a keepsake.

However, on the back he wrote another word:

“HONESTLY.”

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨