A long time ago, perhaps a thousand years before that, the lion and the boar and the wolf formed a strong friendship, and the three good friends set out together to try their luck. For, wherever they went, there were all sorts of unwise animals.
The three good friends went on a terrible rampage. And because they could find no one stronger than themselves, they were very presumptuous.
The lion said one day:
- I would like to see who can beat the three of us?
- Who? The man!" the wolf remarked.
- "Come, don't be childish," said the lion, "I'll beat a bunch of men myself! Hey, if only one would come to us!
- 'All right, all right,' said the wolf.
They have only gone a few steps when a schoolboy comes towards them.
- This man? - asked the lion.
- No, it is not yet human," the wolf replied.
- So I don't get involved.
They went on. They had not gone a hundred paces when an old man stomped towards them. But he was so very old that he could barely keep up.
- What about this man? - asked the lion.
- "It's not that either," the wolf replied, "it was just that.
- So let this also be in peace! - said the lion.
And on they went, and on they went, until they came to a great forest. As they pushed through the thicket, they came upon a young woodcutter.
- Well, this man? - asked the lion.
- That's it!" replied the wolf.
The lion suddenly called to the woodcutter.
- 'Have a nice day, brother! The wolf says you can handle all three of us. What weapons have you got?
- For me? - said the woodcutter. - "I have nothing but an axe, and," he added, "perhaps my wits...
- Yes! Your brain! Then use your wits and defeat us!
- "Yes," said the woodcutter, "but when I forgot it at home!
- Never mind! Run home, my wolf friend, to his house, and fetch his wits.
The woodcutter had just rolled up a piece of paper and told his wife to tie a large cabbage press stone around the wolf's neck. The wolf took the letter, and hurried with it to the woodcutter's wife, while the lion and the boar watched him as if he were the apple of their eye.
But an hour, two hours, three hours passed, and the wolf did not come back. As soon as the fool allowed the woodcutter's wife to tie a stone around his neck, he was finished, the villagers beat the helpless beast to death. Meanwhile the woodcutter was terribly hungry, so he took bread and bacon and began to eat.
- 'Oh,' says the lion, 'but you're eating something that smells good, what is it?
- "It is boar's bacon," the man whispered.
The lion didn't need anything else, he jumped at the boar and tore it to pieces.
- "Stop," cried the man, "don't eat it like that! If you want bacon, you have to cut it out.
- "Yes," said the lion, "you're right, it's no good being furry and hairy, so cut it out, you've got the knife. But you know what? Tie me to a tree while you cut out the bacon, for I don't think I'll be able to eat it all at once.
The woodcutter didn't say twice, he tied the lion to a tree so tightly that his bones were crunching into it. But that wasn't enough.
- See if you can break the rope! - he said to the lion.
The lion leapt at him, and the rope broke as if it had never been.
- Harder, my dear boy, harder! - he urged the woodcutter.
After all, it did not need to be encouraged. Now he had tied her up so tightly that the lion was crazy about her, and he really wanted to get rid of her. But it was not so easy, and the poor man took the opportunity to strike the huge animal with his axe. He showed that "more with wit than with strength!"
(Elek Benedek: Hungarian tale- and mythology Volume 1)
