Yotaro the Fool

In a village, there lived a woman with her son. The son's name was Yotaro. He was a quiet and obedient boy: he didn’t misbehave, didn’t play pranks, and tried to be helpful to everyone, but he was very slow-witted.

One day, his mother said to him:
- Yotaro, I’m going to the river to rinse the laundry, and you keep an eye on the fish. It’s in the kitchen, and there’s a cat there.

The mother took the basket of laundry and went to the river. Yotaro immediately ran to the kitchen, looked around, and saw a dish with fish on the shelf.

"I can’t sit here with my head tilted back, staring at the shelf all the time!" thought Yotaro. "I’ll just put the dish on the floor."

Yotaro did just that: he placed the dish with the fish on the floor, sat down next to it, and stared at the fish without blinking. He completely forgot about the cat. Meanwhile, the cat was sneaking closer and closer to the fish. It crept right up to the dish, grabbed the fish’s head with its paw, and dragged it onto the floor. Yotaro didn’t even move. The cat ate the fish’s head, then dragged the fish’s side off the dish and ate that too. Little by little, it ate the entire fish. Only the fish’s tail remained on the dish.

Having eaten its fill, the cat walked away, curled up into a ball, and fell asleep.
"Now there’s nothing left to look at!" thought Yotaro. "There’s no more fish on the dish. I’ll go outside and take a little walk."

Yotaro ran out of the house and met his mother with the laundry.
- Yotaro, what are you doing outside? - asked his mother. - I told you to watch the fish.

- I was watching it.
- Then why did you leave the kitchen?
- There was nothing left to watch. Only the tail of the fish is left.
- Where’s the rest of the fish?
- The cat ate it.
- And what were you doing?
- I was watching the fish. You told me to watch it, so I did.
- Oh, how foolish you are! - said his mother. - Why didn’t you think to shout “Shoo!” at the cat? The cat would have run away, and the fish would have been safe.

- That’s true, - said Yotaro. - Next time, I’ll be smarter.
The next morning, his mother said:
- Yotaro, go to the garden and see if the radishes are ready. And while you’re at it, check if caterpillars are eating the cabbage.

Yotaro immediately ran to the garden. He saw that the radishes were indeed ready. In some places, white heads were already poking out of the ground. But the cabbage was completely eaten. Big green caterpillars were sitting on its leaves.

Yotaro looked at the caterpillars and thought:
"Now I know what to do. I need to chase the caterpillars off the cabbage."
And he shouted at the top of his lungs:
- Shoo! Shoo!
The caterpillars didn’t budge.
- Shoo! - Yotaro shouted even louder.
But no matter how much he shouted, the caterpillars calmly sat on the leaves. Yotaro started crying and ran to his mother.

- Why are you crying? - asked his mother.
- How can I not cry? The caterpillars are eating our cabbage. I shouted “Shoo, shoo!” at them, but they didn’t listen.

- How foolish you are! - said his mother. - Are caterpillars and cats the same thing? You should have killed them, that’s all.

- That’s true, - said Yotaro. - Next time, I’ll be smarter.
That same day after lunch, Yotaro said to his mother:
- Today there’s a show in the village—wrestlers have come. Can I go watch them?

- You can, - replied his mother. - Just don’t push in the crowd and behave politely.

Yotaro was delighted and ran to the village temple. There, in the courtyard, the show was already underway. In the middle of the courtyard, a wooden platform had been set up, and two big, burly men were wrestling on it. A crowd of spectators had gathered around the platform. The whole village had come to see the show, so the courtyard was very crowded and hot. All the spectators had round paper fans decorated with black symbols in their hands. The fans rustled softly, and a light breeze swept through the courtyard.

Yotaro arrived late and ended up at the very back of the courtyard. He couldn’t see anything except the backs and heads of the spectators. Having nothing else to do, he started examining the backs of people’s heads. And then he saw a pink, shiny, almost lacquered bald spot. Right in the middle of it, on a single hair, sat a big black fly.

"The fly is sitting on the bald spot just like a caterpillar on cabbage," thought Yotaro. "It’s going to eat the old man’s last hair. I need to kill it quickly. That would be very polite."

Yotaro raised his fan high and smacked the old man on the back of his head. The fly immediately flew over to another neighbor’s head. The old man groaned and turned around. Seeing Yotaro, he angrily shouted:

- How dare you hit me, you naughty boy! And with a swing, he slapped Yotaro hard on the cheek.

Yotaro started crying, his cheek swelling and turning red. Sobbing, he pushed his way out of the crowd and ran home to his mother.

- Why are you back so early? - his mother asked in surprise.
- I got beaten because I was being polite, - said Yotaro. - I smacked an old man on the head with my fan to kill a fly, and he got angry and hit me.

- Oh, how foolish you are! - said his mother. - Why did you smack the old man on the head? You should have just waved the fan, and the fly would have flown away.

- That’s true, - said Yotaro. - Next time, I’ll be smarter.
The next day, a fire broke out in the village. Yotaro had never seen a fire in his life and ran as fast as he could to see the house burning. From a distance, he saw yellow flames in thick black smoke. People were running and bustling all along the street. Yotaro ran up to the burning house and stopped on the other side of the street.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and sparks flew in all directions: a burning beam had collapsed. One spark flew across the street and landed on a paper window where Yotaro was standing.

- Oh no! - shouted Yotaro. - I need to chase the spark away, or the whole house will catch fire.

He pulled out his fan from his belt and started waving it with all his might. This only made the spark burn even brighter, and the paper began to smolder.

The people who lived in the house noticed that the paper on their window was smoking, got scared, and ran outside.

There, they saw Yotaro standing by the window, fanning the flames with his fan. The people were so angry with him that they snatched the fan from his hands and gave Yotaro a good beating. Then they quickly doused the smoldering paper with water.

Frightened and tearful, Yotaro trudged home.
- What happened to you? - asked his mother when she saw her tearful son.
- I got beaten again, - said Yotaro, crying. - I wanted to chase a spark off a paper window so the house wouldn’t catch fire, and I started fanning it, but they took my fan away and beat me.

- Oh, how foolish you are! - said his mother. - How can you put out a spark with a fan? You need to douse fire with water.

- That’s true, - replied Yotaro. - Next time, I’ll be smarter.
The next morning, Yotaro went for a walk. He walked all the way to the edge of the village. At the edge of the village stood a blacksmith’s forge. The door was always wide open, and inside, flames blazed all day long. In front of the fire, two young men were swinging back and forth. They were hammering red-hot iron with long-handled hammers. When the hammers struck the iron, sparks flew in all directions.

Yotaro stopped in front of the door and peeked inside.
- Another fire! - Yotaro was delighted. - Well, now I know what to do.
He filled a bucket with water and poured it onto the fire. The blacksmiths were speechless at first. But when the water hissed in the flames, they pounced on Yotaro, gave him a good thrashing, and shoved him out into the street. He ran home, crying loudly.

- What happened this time? - asked his mother.
- I got beaten again, - said Yotaro. - I was walking past the forge, and there was fire and sparks flying everywhere, just like during the fire. I wanted to douse the fire with water, like you told me, but the blacksmiths got angry and beat me.

- Oh, how foolish you are! - said his mother. - The fire in the forge is needed for work. Didn’t you see how the blacksmiths were hammering the iron? If you wanted to help them, you should have done the same as they did.

- That’s true, - said Yotaro. - Next time, I’ll be smarter.
Two days later, when Yotaro’s scratches and bruises had healed, he went out for a walk again. He had barely left the house when he saw two young men hitting each other with sticks.

"They need help!" - thought Yotaro.
He picked up a thick, knobby stick from the ground and hit first one, then the other young man on the head as hard as he could.

The young men immediately stopped fighting and both turned on Yotaro. They were older and stronger than him, and there were two of them. They beat Yotaro so badly that he barely made it home.

- What happened to you? - asked his mother. - Did you get beaten again?
- Yes, - said Yotaro. - I saw two young men on the street. They were hitting each other with sticks. I started helping them, but they both suddenly turned on me and started beating me.

His mother just waved her hand:
- How foolish you are, Yotaro! You weren’t supposed to help them, you were supposed to break them up.
- That’s true, - said Yotaro. - Next time, I’ll be smarter.
For seven days after that, Yotaro stayed at home, afraid to go outside. But on the eighth day, he couldn’t resist and went for a walk.

He stepped outside and saw two dogs fighting in the middle of the road.
Yotaro stopped and shouted:
- Stop fighting!
The dogs, of course, didn’t listen. So Yotaro ran up to them, grabbed both by their tails, and started pulling them in opposite directions. The dogs became even more enraged, growled, and bit poor Yotaro on the calves. If passersby hadn’t come to his rescue, the dogs would have torn him to pieces.

Barely alive, Yotaro returned to his mother.
His mother looked at him and said nothing more.
Teaching a fool is just a waste of time.

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Yotaro the Fool

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