A huge mother bear knocked on the forester’s door: the old man opened it without even suspecting why the wild animal had come and what would happen very soon 

For many years he had lived alone on the edge of the forest. Once there had been life here: friends came to visit, sometimes relatives stopped by, a car stood in the yard, and conversations could be heard from the house. But over time all of that disappeared. His wife died, his son moved far away and almost stopped writing. The house by the lake became quiet and empty.

The old man got used to the loneliness. In the mornings he stepped out onto the porch, looked at the forest, listened to the wind moving through the pines, and lit the stove. Sometimes moose passed in the distance or foxes flashed through the trees, but wild animals never came near the house.

That morning he woke up before dawn. At first he thought the wind had hit the door with a branch. Then a dull sound followed, as if someone had heavily pushed the porch.

The old man put on a warm jacket and carefully opened the door. And froze.

Right at the threshold stood a huge mother bear. Steam rose from her mouth, and snow glittered on her fur. But that wasn’t the strangest thing.

Between her teeth she was carrying a small bear cub.

The animal wasn’t growling and wasn’t baring its teeth. The bear simply stood there, looking straight at the man. There was no anger in her eyes, only worry.

The old man felt his heart pounding in his chest. Anyone in his place would have slammed the door and hidden inside the house. His mind told him to do exactly that.

But something in that gaze made him stay where he was. Slowly he took a step forward. The bear carefully placed the cub on the snow.

And at that moment the wild animal did something, after which the old man finally understood why it had come to his house  The continuation of the story can be found in the first comment 

The small body of the cub barely moved.

When the old man bent down to look closer, he noticed a thin metal loop around its paw. It was a poacher’s trap that had cut deeply into the skin. The cub could hardly move and was breathing heavily.

The old man carefully opened the loop and freed the paw. Then he lifted the little animal and carried it into the house. He placed the cub near the stove, covered it with an old wool blanket, and began gently rubbing it to warm it up.

All that time the mother bear sat by the porch and didn’t go anywhere.

After a while the cub stirred softly and opened its eyes. The old man took it in his arms and carried it back outside.

The bear came closer, carefully took the cub and suddenly gently touched the man’s hand with her muzzle.

Then she turned around and slowly disappeared into the forest.

And the very next day the old man found several more traps like that in the thicket. He removed every single one of them.

After that encounter he once again began walking through the forest every day, just as he had done many years ago.