Once Budamshu Daa was walking through the village and heard that the authorities had issued a decree. Budamshu Daa asked:
- What kind of decree was issued?
“When a Buryat died, we buried him with the Buryat lamas; the things and wealth of the deceased remained with the Buryats. Now, after we have accepted Russian citizenship, we must bury the dead with Russian lamas - priests.
Budamshu Daa looked at this decree and said:
- Let's bury one person as the decree says. And then I will try to cancel such a funeral.
- Smart Budamshu Daa speaks the truth. He will be able to cancel. We just need to wait a little. Since life is such that people are born and die, then someone will die anyway. We will bury that person as the decree orders, and then, we hope, it will be cancelled, says the people.
At this time, a rich man died in one village. Budamshu Daa ordered to dig a hole of eighty fathoms and went to the priest to invite him. When they said that a rich man had died, the pop-rich man agreed to come.
“Since the rich man died,” the priest thinks, “I will get a lot of good things.”
Budamshu Daa's relatives, together with other people, took the deceased and went to that pit.
When the priest with a copper cross in his hands was reading a prayer over the grave, Budamshu Daa crept up behind him and, after they lowered the corpse into the hole, pushed the priest into the same place.
- Drop the ground! - Budamshu Daa said. So, along with the deceased, they covered the priest with earth.
“Well, since we did this to a rich man, then his goods should be taken to the priest’s relatives.”
Budamshu Daa took many people with him, exactly half of the deceased rich man’s property and took it to the priest’s relatives.
-Where is our priest? - they ask.
“They buried them,” they answer.
- Why did you bury him?
— A decree was issued according to which the dead Buryats should be buried with a priest. We had to bury as the decree ordered. That is why we buried the priest together with the deceased person.
Then the priest's relatives let the authorities know about this.
Budamshu Daa says to his friends:
- There will be a big lawsuit because of this. You must stand together and say everything I say accurately, without mistakes.
The authorities summoned them to their place.
“Why did you bury your butt with a dead person?”
— A decree of the authorities appeared, according to which the dead Buryats should be buried with a priest. So we buried him as the decree ordered.
- What happens now? Referring to the decree of the authorities, you will bury as many priests as Buryats die.
- Certainly! Since the authorities have issued such a decree, we must bury priests every time. Since we submit to the authorities, we cannot act differently. People will die. Will there be that many priests? - asks Budamshu Daa.
All the friends who came with Budamshu Daa unanimously echoed him. Then the authorities decided: “There will be no end to the stupidity of these Buryats!” And they said:
- From this day forward, don’t call the priests. When a person dies, you bury him yourself.
From that time on, they say, they did not bury him with the priest.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru