There was, and there was nothing - there lived one peasant. With great difficulty, he saved two hundred rubles so that he could be buried properly. He had a boy worker. One day, the peasant’s wife (she was not at home) sent a worker to fetch water.
And the guy broke the jug, he doesn’t go home, he’s afraid. By evening I figured out what to do. He comes, shows the hostess the neck of the jug and says:
- Look what I found. If you look there, you will see the whole world. The hostess asks:
- Give me, take at least twenty rubles.
“No,” says the deceiver, “give me two hundred, but no, I won’t give it back.”
The woman was overcome by curiosity - she wanted to see the whole world, she couldn’t stand it, she took out her husband’s money and gave it away.
The guy took a bag full of money and left, and she hid the neck of the jug, thinking - her husband will come, we’ll see together.
A peasant arrives, his wife meets him and pleases him:
“Look what I bought, if you look there, you’ll see the whole world,” and she handed him the neck of the jug.
The husband understood what was going on, he was crying, he was killed:
- Woe to me, to whom you gave your hard-earned money, you ruined me, you ruined me!
So what can we do? He got up, collected some things for the road and went to look for the deceiver.
Whether he walked a lot or a little - but where could he find that guy?
The peasant was tortured, sat down by a stream, drank water, refreshed his forehead, and sat resting.
And nearby was the house of a rich nobleman.
So the servant of this nobleman comes to the stream, sees the traveler and asks:
- Who are you and where are you going?
- Where? To hell, to the next world! - says the poor peasant in his hearts. The servant went to the masters and reported:
“There’s a man sitting by the stream, going to the next world, would you like to send something to his son?” The gentlemen were delighted, called the peasant, fed him, gave him something to drink, and gave him a full sack.
gold and silver and say:
“Take this to your son, since you’re going there, and tell him how the money comes out, let him write, and we’ll send more.”
The peasant put the sack on his back and started running to his home.
The nobleman's son-in-law came to see him.
His father-in-law and mother-in-law met him and made him happy:
- And we sent money to our son; They met one who was going to the next world and begged him to take it.
- Oh, woe to us! - the son-in-law screamed. - Yes, he deceived you, whoever is going to the next world, he embezzled money, and that’s all.
He jumped on his horse and rushed after him.
This peasant is walking, hurrying as fast as he can, looking around all the time - have you guessed that there is a chase?
He sees someone rushing after him on a horse.
What to do? He looked around - there was a mill not far away.
He ran into the yard and saw a bald miller sitting there. The peasant shouted:
- Save yourself quickly, the king of the bald is flying on a horse, killing all the bald! - He can barely breathe, covered in sweat.
The miller got scared, ran, climbed a mulberry tree, hid, and the peasant sprinkled himself with flour and sat as if nothing had happened.
My son-in-law came rushing over.
-Where did that fugitive go? - he shouts to the peasant, thinking that it is the miller.
“Here he is, climbing a mulberry tree,” the peasant answers. The son-in-law jumped off his horse.
“Hold the horse for me,” he says, “and I’ll deal with him properly, he took away our bag of gold by deception.”
He climbed a tree, threw the poor miller to the ground and started cutting him up. And the peasant who was going to the next world jumped on his horse, tied up his bag of gold and rode home.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru