There lived one peasant. He had a beautiful wife. The peasant's wife got into mischief with the headman. The peasant knew about this, but remained silent. One day a peasant came home and said to his wife: “There’s honey at the market, go buy it, just be careful - don’t buy blinding honey, you can blind a person with that honey.”
“Hey,” thought the wife, “now I know what to do. I’ll buy this honey and blind my husband.” She went to the seller: “Is there any blinding honey?” “There is,” says the seller, “as much as you want!” The wife bought a full pot of honey and took it to her husband. “Didn’t she take the blinding one?” - asks the husband. “No,” says the wife. The husband sat down and began to take the honey. “Woe is me!” I'm going blind, I'm going blind! - shouts. - Oh, you damned one, why did you bring blinding honey?
The wife rejoices: now the husband won’t see anything. “I’m already going blind anyway, so at least we’ll finish the honey so that someone else doesn’t go blind,” says the husband, and alone he lapped up a full pot of honey.
The wife went to the headman and said: “I blinded my husband, now is our time, come, no one will bother us.” The headman came. They slaughtered good, fat chickens. The wife didn’t have enough water, she ran out of the house, and the headman lay down and dozed off. The husband got up, took boiling water, poured it down the sleeping elder’s throat - the elder suffocated.
The wife came, cooked chickens, prepared dinner, went up to the headman and woke him up: “Get up for dinner. Let my enemy wake up like he woke up!” The woman got scared and began to ask her husband: “Take whatever you want, just take this elder and throw him somewhere in the water.” The husband stood up, put the dead elder on his back and dragged him home. He reported, dragged it onto the balcony and shouted in a deep voice, as if the headman himself: “Hey, wife, open the doors!” “Oh, you, so-and-so, when you get drunk, you run to another, and when you sober up, you trudge home?” Sit there by the door, and I won’t open it, and I won’t move your hand. Open it, or I’ll fall off the balcony! - the peasant shouts. - And great, get well.
The peasant threw the elder, he thundered down the stairs and hit the threshold, and the peasant walked away and hid nearby. The wife ran out, saw that the headman had been killed, and started shouting: “Woe is me!” I killed him, what will happen now, I won’t be happy for this. A peasant came out. “Why are you screaming, are you killing yourself?” — he himself seemed to have nothing to do with it. “So and so,” the headman’s wife cries, “I am to blame for his death, help, save me.” “Give me two thousand and I’ll take him away,” says the peasant.
What to do, the headman’s wife gave him two thousand. The peasant put the elder on his back and dragged him to the mill. He turned off the water, put the headman on his feet as if alive, rested his hands on the crossbars of the wheels, walked away and hid.
The mill stopped, the miller ran out and saw the headman. “Oh, it was you who stopped the water for me!” - he grabbed him with a baton and knocked him down. The headman fell, did not move, the miller looked - a man had been killed, and let’s shout: “What kind of misfortune is this on my head!” A peasant came out: “Ah!” Killed the headman?! Well, now you will see what will happen to you. The miller begged: “Just don’t give me away, take the dead man somewhere and throw him away, two thousand ladies.”
The peasant took two thousand, put the elder on his back and dragged him to the church. He pulled him out to the bell tower, put ropes in his hands, he would ring the bell himself, he would ring the bell, he would run away and hide. The priest endured and endured, got angry, grabbed the baton and grabbed the headman on the head with the baton. The priest looked: the man had completely cooled down, he had died, he got scared, wanted to hide him, but then a peasant came out and said: “Don’t fuss in vain, father, you killed this man and you will be responsible for it.” The priest asks: “Just don’t tell anyone and somehow get rid of the dead man—take what you want!” Give me five hundred rubles and a donkey in addition, so that I can take the dead man away on it. Gave a priest and a donkey and money.
The peasant put the elder on a donkey and drove him away. He reached the village, and there the peasants threshed their bread, left the grain on the threshing floor, and went off to rest. The peasant brought a donkey, put it in the middle of the threshing floor, and hid himself. The donkey ate his fill of grain.
The peasants returned and saw a donkey standing in the middle of the threshing floor, gorging itself on grain, a man sitting on the donkey and not driving it away. The peasants got angry: “Oh, you scoundrel, you can’t see that the donkey has eaten all the grain, you can’t drive him away!” - grabbed sticks and started beating the dead elder until they knocked him off the donkey. Then a peasant came out and said: “Did you kill the man?” Now you'll get it for this! They got scared. “Just don’t give us away and get rid of the dead man—we’ll give you three hundred rubles.”
The peasant dragged the headman, buried him in the ground, returned home, kicked out his traitorous wife and lived happily ever after.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru