There lived one inquisitive fellow, Andrei. He wanted to know everything. Wherever he looks, whatever he sees, he asks people about everything, finds out about everything. Clouds are floating across the sky... Where did they come from? And where are they going? The river is noisy behind the village... Where does it flow? The forest is growing... Who planted it? Why do birds have wings? They fly freely everywhere, but man has no wings?
People answered him and answered him, but in the end they saw that they themselves did not know what to answer.
“You, Andrey, want to be wiser than everyone else,” people began to laugh at him. - Is it really possible to know everything?
But Andrey doesn’t believe that you can’t know everything.
“I’ll go,” he says, “to the sun itself, it shines everywhere, sees everything, knows everything.” So it will tell me what I myself don’t know.
He left his hut and went to look for the place where the sun sets for the night.
He walks and walks, and lo and behold, a man is sitting on a stone by the road and asks everyone: “How long should I sit here?”
And Andrey couldn’t answer him either.
He went further. He sees a man supporting the tyn with his shoulders.
- What are you doing, uncle? - asks Andrey. - Why are you propping up the old tyn?
- I don’t know... Maybe you know?
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be looking for someone who knows everything,” said Andrei and moved on.
He walked a little and saw a man rummaging through the trash.
- Why are you raking up the trash, uncle?
- Don't know.
“Well, I don’t know,” Andrey said and moved on.
He walked for a long time and entered a dense forest. I walked through the forest all day, and in the evening I came out into a clearing. - And then suddenly his eyes were blinded: such a brilliance shone from the clearing. He closed his eyes and saw that nearby the sun’s mansions were blazing with fire. As soon as he entered the mansion, nothing was visible from the radiance. As I get used to it a little, lo and behold, the sun’s old mother is sitting in a chair.
- Why did you come here, lad? - asks. Andrei bowed to her and said:
“I came to the sun to find out about this and that.”
- but what is it about - about this and that?
- Yes, about everything that I myself don’t know.
- Why don’t you know yourself?
Andrei began to tell her, and the old woman listened and listened and began to yawn.
“Okay,” she says, “wait a little, soon my son will return to spend the night.” In the meantime, I’ll take a nap: I’m too tired from the long day.
Andrei came out of the choir. He lit a fire and started roasting lard on a spit: he was hungry after the long journey!
He ate lard and bread. I wanted to drink. He went to the river and bent down to the water. Suddenly he sees a girl rising from the bottom of the river, so beautiful that you can’t take your eyes off her. And she looked at him too.
“Don’t drink water from the river,” she says, “or the sun will burn you!”
- And I’m very thirsty.
- Follow me.
The girl led him to an old oak tree, and from under it a spring of clean, icy water flowed.
Andrei bent down and drank plenty of spring water. And then the sun began to descend from the sky into its mansions. We must go to him, but he is unable to part with the beautiful girl.
“Just be careful, don’t tell the sun that you saw me here,” said the girl, rose up and sparkled like a clear star.
Andrey went to the mansion. And there the sun is so hot that the walls are cracking in unison. But at least for Andrey - he drank spring water, so the sun can’t burn him. I just pulled my hat down over my forehead so that my eyes wouldn’t burn.
He told the sun why he came. The sun says:
- I don’t have time to teach you. But I will make sure that you find out everything yourself.
This sun said, gathered all its rays into one beam and flashed at his head. And suddenly Andrei felt that his head had become clearer and brighter, only it was too burning, and his heart suddenly became cold as ice...
He left the mansion. He felt unwell with a cold heart. He remembered about the girl. And he wanted to see her again so much that he even broke down all over. He started calling her. And a clear star rolled down from the sky and turned into a beautiful maiden in front of him. As Andrei looked at her, he instantly felt that his heart was again the same as it was.
He took the girl by the hand and led her to his region. And he was so happy now that he no longer envied the winged birds.
They approached the man who was clearing away the garbage. Andrei looked at him, and everything became clear to him.
“You,” he says to the man, “are looking for lost pennies in the trash and are just wasting your time.” Better get down to work - you'll sooner earn those pennies than find them.
The man listened to him, began to work and made good and money.
They walked further and saw a man propping up the tyn with his shoulders. Andrey looked at him and said:
- Don’t prop up something that’s rotten, man, it will collapse anyway. Make a better new one.
The man listened to him and installed a new tyn instead of the rotten one.
They reached a man who was sitting on a stone and did not know how long he should sit there. Andrey tells him:
“Don’t be so greedy, man: let other passers-by sit on this stone.”
Andrei took the man off the stone and sat down with the girl. And the man ran home happy.
They rested a little and moved further to the region where Andrei lived.
And now it’s not Andrei who asks people about everything, but people who ask him.
So Andrei became wiser than everyone else.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru