There lived an old man and an old woman. They had a pied hen. The hen laid a pockmarked egg. The old woman put the egg in the salt shaker. The mouse ran, knocked over the salt shaker, and the egg broke. The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying.
Asks her door:
- Why are you crying, old woman?
- How can I not cry? - the old woman answers. “We lived with an old man, we had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking.
The pig asks:
- Why are you creaking the door?
- How can I not creak? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing.
They ask the gate:
- Why are you squealing, pig?
- How can I not squeal? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing, the gate is cracking. A magpie flew in and asked:
“Why are you gates crackling?”
- How can we not crack? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing, the gate is cracking, the magpie is plucking out its feathers.
A magpie sat on a birch tree. The birch tree asks her:
“Why did you, magpie, pull out your feathers?”
- How can I not pull out the feathers? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing, the gate is crackling, the magpie has pulled out its feathers, the birch tree has broken off its branches.
The river flowed past. The river asks:
-Why did you break off the branches, birch tree?
- How can I not break off the branches? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing, the gate is cracking, the magpie has pulled out its feathers, the birch tree has broken off its branches, the river is bleeding.
The priest came to the river with buckets. Popovna asks:
“Why are you, river, bleeding?”
- How can I not bleed? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing, the gate is cracking, the magpie has pulled out its feathers, the birch tree has broken off its branches, the river is bleeding, the priest has dropped his buckets.
The priest asks her:
- Why did you drop the buckets?
- How can I not drop the bucket? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing, the gate is crackling, the magpie's feathers are being pulled out, the birch tree is breaking off its branches, the river is flowing with blood, the priest has dropped his buckets, and the priest's bowl has overturned.
The priest came and asked the priest:
- Why didn’t you knead the dough?
- How can I knead the dough? There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a pied hen, she laid a pockmarked egg, and a mouse broke it.
The old man is grieving, the old woman is crying, the door is creaking, the pig is squealing, the gates are crackling, the magpie's feathers have been pulled out, the birch branches have broken off, the river is flowing with blood, the priest's buckets have dropped, the priest's kneading has overturned, the priest has scattered his missals and broken his head on the stove.
That's how expensive the pockmarked egg turned out to be!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru