The White Cat and the Imps

Once upon a time, there was a man who had captured a polar bear which he intended to present to the tsar. On the way home, he found himself in the woods as night began to fall, and he asked a woodsman for refuge.

'Of course, you may stay the night,' said the woodsman, 'but you'll have to make do as best you can, because there won't be much space. This night in the feast of the rolls, the impish spirits of the forest, and unfortunately they have a tradition of celebrating with a banquet in my house!'

The man laid out his bed in the closet, and the bear crawled in under the covers and soon fell asleep.

That evening the trolls arrived, hundreds of every shape and size, noisy and cheeky like little boys. One of them spied the white fur under the covers, and thought a large cat was hiding there. The troll tugged spitefully at the fur, until the polar bear leapt out in fury. The terrified trolls fled.

The year after, before turning up at the house, the trolls asked the woodsman if he still had his 'big cat'.

'Oh yes!' confirmed the woodsman, 'and the seven kittens she has had in the last twelve months are all bigger than the mother!'

Needles to say, the trolls never returned to the woodsman's house for their banquet.