There once lived a boy named Anton. And he was, like all boys — a bit mischievous, cheeky 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 fault: he didn't value his toys at all. Whatever his parents bought him, everything got broken.
Mum would bring home an enormous transformer, and Anton would leave it on a bench.
Dad would buy an imported tank, and the boy would immediately take it apart and throw away the pieces.
And no matter how much Mum and Dad tried, Anton wouldn't treat his toys respectfully. Once, his parents even heard him tell a friend, "Dad and Mum 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 became frightened then and called for his mum.
All your toys have left, Anton.
Mum shook her head sorrowfully.
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.
And what am I supposed to do?
But Mum only shrugged her shoulders and, heading to the kitchen, remarked:
One must put right one's mistakes oneself.
Anton sat in his room, thought it over — and an idea came to him. He crept secretly into his father's workshop and borrowed a couple of tubes of paint from there. He sat down on his carpet, laid out his brushes and began to work.
Only a day had passed, but the train already looked as good as new. And the sides with peeling paint had vanished completely. True, both the carpet and Anton were covered in paint, and the boy was exhausted. It turned out to be no easy task — repairing toys.
And the next day, returning from school, the boy couldn't believe his eyes. On the bed in his room lay a robot! Anton jumped joyfully to his toy box, and it was full again.
From then on, he never broke or lost his toys again. And anything he broke accidentally, he always mended with Dad's help.
