Once upon a time, there lived a boy named Anton. He was like all boys — a bit cheeky, mischievous, and cheerful. However, he knew his limits — he helped his mum, did his homework diligently, and even tidied his room sometimes.
But Anton had just one flaw: he didn't value his toys at all. Whatever his parents bought him, everything got broken.
Mum would bring home a huge transformer, and Anton would leave it on the bench.
Dad would buy an imported tank, and the boy would immediately take it apart and chuck out the pieces.
No matter how much Mum and Dad tried, Anton wouldn't treat his toys with respect. One day, his parents even overheard him telling a mate, "Mum and Dad will just buy me more."
And so the boy would have continued, if not for one incident. One morning, Anton woke up, looked into his toy box — and found nothing there. Only an old toy train lay there, a Soviet one at that.
Anton got frightened then and called for his mum.
All your toys have left, Anton.
Mum shook her head sadly.
What do you mean, left? Where to?
He rubbed his nose indignantly and nearly cried. But boys weren't allowed to cry.
To another boy who looks after his toys.
So what am I supposed to do?
But Mum just shrugged and, heading to the kitchen, remarked:
You need to fix your mistakes yourself.
Anton sat in his room, thought it over — and an idea came to him. He sneaked into his dad's workshop and borrowed a couple of tubes of paint. He sat down on his carpet, laid out his brushes, and got to work.
Only a day passed, but the train already looked good as new. The sides with peeling paint had vanished. True, the carpet and Anton were also covered in paint, and the boy was knackered. It turned out to be hard yakka — repairing toys.
The next day, coming home from school, the boy couldn't believe his eyes. On the bed in his room lay a robot! Anton jumped excitedly to his toy box, and it was full again.
From then on, he never broke or lost his toys again. And whatever he broke accidentally, he always fixed with Dad's help.
