Once upon a time there lived a rich merchant. And then one day he was going to distant countries, and left his great wealth in the care of his steward. By chance, a certain artisan overheard the merchant say to the manager:
“I trust you alone with my riches, save them, but most of all, keep the hundred caskets that are in my pantry.” Each casket contains one hundred gold pieces. Keep a good eye on them.
The artisan turned out to be a cunning fellow and struck up a friendship with the manager, so much so that they soon began drinking coffee together almost every day.
And then one day the artisan said, as if by chance:
“You know, buddy, I’m something of an alchemist.” Now, if I could get at least one gold, I could double the gold and get two gold.
The manager had never heard anything like this in fairy tales, so at first he didn’t believe his friend. But soon curiosity began to overcome him, and he wanted to check whether his friend was telling the truth. He didn’t have his own gold, but hunting was worse than bondage, so he decided to borrow gold from the owner.
“But you’ll only take it for a while,” the artisan admonished him, “and it will be in your hands all the time, here in the coffee shop, and even if it doesn’t double, what are you losing?”
Well, how could one resist such a temptation, and the manager agreed.
He took one gold piece from the master’s treasury and put it in the box, the one that the “alchemist” gave him. And there was a box with a secret. And when he opened it, he closed his eyes in surprise - at the bottom there really were two gold coins instead of one. The manager's delight knew no bounds. And when a friend said that he was giving him this newborn gold, he, of course, wanted to repeat this trick. He asked the craftsman about this.
“Well, of course, of course,” he answered, “only here some conditions must be observed.” First, take one gold piece from each box, no matter how many you have, and bring it here.
No sooner said than done. So, one after another, a hundred gold pieces turned into two hundred.
“Well, as for the next condition,” said the craftsman, “it is this: you must not put new gold in the old caskets.” Get another box somewhere and put these two hundred in it. Well, once you have done everything I told you, you can safely use your hundred from this box. This way you will collect the owner’s money, and you will also gain a hundred gold pieces from this.
That's what the manager did. At first he was afraid that the gold was not real, but when he saw that “doubles” were accepted in the shops without any questions, he completely lost his head with joy. He had never had so much money before, so he spent most of his wealth on wine and other pleasures, and how could it be otherwise, because he well remembered that his friend told him: “As soon as your hundred runs out, tell me, and we will fill your wallet again, but only when your money runs out, not before.”
Whether long or short, the merchant returned from overseas countries, and by this time the manager was so addicted to wine that he became a bitter drunkard. Seeing him in such an unsightly state, the buyer exclaimed in his hearts:
- What kind of manager is this? You, a swindler, probably spent my money on yourself?!
“What can you do, master,” the manager stammered, “I even multiplied them.”
The merchant rushed as fast as he could into his treasury, but at first glance there was nothing there that would indicate the manager was dishonest. And at that very moment when he sighed with relief, a craftsman appeared at the door. The merchant looked at him in surprise, and he said to him:
- Give me back the money that I left with you for safekeeping.
- What money? — the merchant was surprised. - Yes, this is the first time I’ve seen you, you rascal!
And such swearing broke out that the authorities had to intervene in this matter, who, without hesitation, took both of them to court.
“I left the money with this man for safekeeping,” the unscrupulous swindler declared to the judge, pointing to the merchant.
- And how many were there? - he asked.
“Nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty gold pieces, ninety-nine in each casket, except one, which had fifty of them,” blurted out the rogue, who all this time had been carefully counting all the manager’s expenses.
- Oh, that's a lie! And I can prove it! - exclaimed the merchant, who had recovered a little. “I have exactly one hundred caskets, each of which contains a hundred gold pieces, and I left all this in the care of the manager. In total there were ten thousand gold pieces, well, maybe a little less if the manager stole some from there, but certainly not the amount that this swindler said.
The court, after hearing both, decided to count the gold. But, to the merchant’s horror, it turned out that the caskets contained exactly the amount that the fraudulent craftsman had called. The manager could not be called as a witness, because his mind was completely clouded by wine. And therefore the court decided that all the gold should be given to the artisan, who after this story became a very respected and famous person throughout the area.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru