How the Phone Lost His Pants

Tinkle the phone searches for his blue pants and discovers that kitten Mňouka has mistaken them for a hat.

Once upon a time there was a little phone named Tinkle. He lived in a pink case with polka dots, and every day he nicely tinkled, blinked, and said:

“Ting ting! Good morning!”

Tinkle was very proud of his pants. They were not ordinary pants — they were a soft blue case with a little pocket. In it, the phone looked like a little gentleman.

One morning he woke up, stretched his screen, and looked down.

“Oh dear!” he cried. “Where are my pants?”

On the table lay crayons, a mug of tea, and a piece of cookie, but the pants were nowhere to be seen.

Tinkle rolled over to the teddy bear.

“Teddy, have you seen my pants?”

The teddy bear blinked his button eyes.

“Grumble grumble, I have not. But maybe a sock borrowed them. Socks like to disappear.”

So the phone hopped over to the laundry basket.

“Sock, do you have my pants?”

A striped sock peeked out of the basket.

“I do not,” she said. “I am looking for my sister. She has hidden again.”

Tinkle sighed.

Then he went to ask the little car under the bed.

“Little car, have you seen my pants?”

“Vroom vroom,” muttered the car. “I saw something blue driving toward the armchair!”

“My pants can drive?” Tinkle wondered.

He rolled over to the armchair until his screen got a little sweaty. And there he heard a quiet:

“Shhh…”

Under the armchair sat little kitten Mňouka. And what was she wearing on her head?

Tinkle’s blue pants!

“Mňouka!” the phone laughed. “Those are not hats. Those are my pants!”

The kitten blinked.

“Meow? I thought it was a little house for ears.”

Tinkle started laughing so much that he rang:

“Ting ting ting!”

The kitten gave him his pants back. The phone put them on, settled nicely into his case, and said:

“Thank you, Mňouka. But next time, please ask me first.”

“Meow,” said the kitten. “And next time, do not leave your pants on the floor.”

From that day on, Tinkle slept on the table every evening, nicely dressed in his blue pants.

And the kitten?

She got her own little hat.

But she still sometimes tried to sit in a tissue box, because kittens are simply strange.

And so they all lived happily, tinkling, meowing, and never forgetting that pants belong on a phone — and hats belong on a kitten’s head.

Good night.