In one village not far from a dense forest, there once lived a woodcutter Pedro and his wife Ana. They were very poor.
One morning Pedro went into the forest to chop firewood so that he could sell it later. Suddenly he saw: on the path along which he was walking, some old man was lying. Pedro threw the ax and ran towards him. The old man, when he realized that Pedro wanted to help him, said to the woodcutter:
- Thank you, son, for your good intention. I don’t have much time left to live, and I can’t be helped. Make sure I am buried and take my bag for yourself.
And the old man pointed to the bag that was lying nearby.
Pedro decided to take the old man to his home so that he could die in bed. So he did - he picked him up, carried him to his hut and laid him on the bed. Ana almost burst with anger when she saw that Pedro was placing an old man in dirty rags on their clean bed, and began to scold her husband. But as soon as Pedro put the old man down, he disappeared. Pedro realized that in fact it was not an old man, but some kind of forest spirit.
The time was still early, and Pedro went into the forest again. There, near his ax, he saw a bag given by the old man - he had completely forgotten about it.
Pedro sat down, opened the bag and saw that it was full of gold. The woodcutter was very happy, he thought: “What should I do? If my wife sees the money, she won’t be able to resist and tell someone about it. And then the headman will probably demand a share for himself, and others too.”
Pedro thought for a long time and finally figured out what to do. He dug a hole in the ground and buried a bag of gold in it, and then went fishing. Pedro caught a lot of fish and hung them on tree branches. Then he went to a neighboring village, bought cakes there and scattered them in the grass under the trees on which the fish hung. After this, Pedro returned home and said to his wife:
- Let's go into the forest - pick fish from the trees, pick up cakes in the grass.
- Think about what you are saying! - Ana exclaimed. -Are you crazy? Or maybe drunk?
“If you don’t believe me, let’s go into the forest and see for yourself,” Pedro answered calmly. - Just don’t forget to take two larger baskets - the branches on the trees bend from the fish.
Although the wife did not believe a single word he said, she did not argue with her husband, but took two baskets and went with him into the forest.
Everything turned out as Pedro said. There were fish hanging on the trees, but you also had to look at your feet: wherever you stepped, there was a cake. Forgetting about everything in the world, Ana threw fish and cakes into baskets and was not at all surprised when her husband showed her a bag of gold.
With a heavy burden, Pedro and Ana went home. There they hid the gold away, put away the cakes, prepared the fish and sat down at the table to celebrate their good fortune. The wife could not sit still, she couldn’t wait to tell someone as soon as possible about the happiness that had befallen them. Pedro, seeing this, released Ana, and she immediately ran to her neighbor.
“This morning,” she said, choking, “my husband and I went into the forest and picked fish from the trees, and collected a lot of cakes in the grass.”
-What are you talking about? — the neighbor was amazed and put her hand on Ana’s forehead, deciding that she was sick. - You have a fever, you are sick, my poor friend! Come on, I'll take you home. Just lie down a little and everything will pass.
And no matter how much Ana tried to talk about the third find, her friend immediately interrupted her - she did not believe a single word of Ana. The neighbor took Ana home, and Pedro, seeing his wife and neighbor, ran out to meet them. The neighbor told him:
“Hurry up and put your wife to bed—I think she’s sick, she’s chattering who knows what.”
Pedro picked up Ana and carried her into the hut. Ana tried to break free and shouted to her neighbor as she left:
- Don’t go, I haven’t told you everything yet - Pedro and I found a bag full of gold!
But the neighbor just waved her hand - it was clear to her that not a single word Ana said could be trusted.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru