One man got an evil wife, but it would be fine if she was only evil, or even a fool, she was rather weak-minded. The unfortunate husband had already suffered a lot of grief with her: he beat her mercilessly, and persuaded her in a good way, and again threatened her with a stick - the wife didn’t care at all. Time passed, and the woman began to lose her mind completely. The husband's patience ran out, he grabbed a stick and tore his wife like Sidorov's goat. The poor thing ran out into the yard to cry to her heart's content, and in the yard there was a cow lying, chewing her cud. The cow looked around to see if her owner had brought her food. And the fool noticed that the cow was staring at her and moving her lips, she jumped up like mad and screamed:
- Oh, you toadstool! And are you kidding me? — She rushed into the house, grabbed an ax and grabbed the cow on the head. She hit once, twice, three times, hammering with an ax and saying:
- And you are there too, mocking me! I didn’t suffer enough from my man, I didn’t suffer enough from my tormentor! “So the stupid woman killed the cow.”
So the husband goes out into the yard, and what does he see: a slaughtered cow lies in the middle of the yard.
- Woe and misfortune cannot live apart! - the man exclaimed.
He skinned the cow, salted the meat and hung the carcass to smoke. And he cut off the hind leg, told his wife to cover the meat with a cabbage leaf and take as much as she needed for food. The husband went to the market, and the wife chopped up the ham, went to the garden and scattered the pieces under the cabbage heads. The dogs smelled the meat and ate it all clean. The owner's bitch also ate beef along with other people's dogs. The fool caught her and decided to punish her. She dragged her into the cellar, tied her to a wine barrel plug, lashed her several times with a rod, and shouted at her in her anger:
- Oh, you lascivious rubbish! Males are always following you! Because of your debauchery, the dogs devoured all our corned beef!
The dog cannot bear the beating. She began to break from the rope and pulled the plug out of the barrel. She pulled it out and out the door - there was a rush, and the wine just gushed out of the barrel. Before the fool had time to blink an eye, a huge puddle had spread across the floor and the barrel was empty. This is what the stupid woman will get from her husband! She grabbed a bag of flour and started filling up the puddle - she poured out all the flour she could find in the house. My husband comes from the market, and he doesn’t even have anything to eat for dinner. The dogs ate the corned beef, the wine was spilled on the floor, and the flour was spoiled. His eyes darkened with grief! He thought about it, but no matter where you throw it, there’s a wedge everywhere, he grabbed the stick again and gave his wife a thrashing. The fool saw that she could not beg forgiveness from her husband, rushed to the door, ran out and disappeared into the dark forest, and there she spent the night under the ruins of an ancient fortress. And when dawn came and the sun rose, the fool, having nothing better to do, began to dig through the ruins and suddenly came across a pot full of gold. That's how lucky she was! I took the potty and went home. With joy, she forgot both her pain and her resentment, and boasted to her husband about her find. And the husband buried the pot of gold under the floor so that his wife would not foolishly tell the neighbors, and went to the market. As soon as the husband was out of the gate, the wife started rummaging around the whole house and finally found her pot. I pulled out a few coins from there, went to the potter, and bought some pots. The fool brought them home and began to plant them on the palisade. For each stake there is a pot. She had one extra pot left - nowhere to plant it. The fool grabbed a stick and started hitting the pots and saying:
- Spread out! Spread! Make room for that last pot too!
The fool smashed all the pots, and impaled the only one that survived - the one she was holding in her hands.
After some time, the husband returned from the market and learned that his wife had found her pot and had already managed to use the money. The man became alarmed: the Turks or the Kadi would not have caught wind of the pot of gold! God forbid. You will pay with your property, or even your head!
What he feared happened. Can a woman keep a secret? She boasted to her neighbors that she had found a treasure, and rumors spread from house to house.
The man was seriously alarmed. And he decided to intimidate his wife in order to hide the ends in the water.
- Hey, wife! Do you know that today the herald shouted in the market square? “Listen, everyone! The army of chickens is coming to war against you! Save yourself, whoever can!” What will happen to us now!
The fool is neither alive nor dead from fear. She begs her husband to hide her in a safe place from the merciless chicken army. And that’s all my husband needs. He took his wife to a hole, hid her there, and covered the hole with an oxhide and sprinkled corn grain on top. All the neighbor's chickens came running to the corn and began pecking at the grain. And the fool hid and listened to the army of chickens thundering over her head - surely a fierce force had taken up arms against her!
The husband decided that he had given his wife enough fear, scattered the chickens, skinned her and pulled the fool out of the hole. She crawls out, pale as a sheet, barely opening her lips to thank her husband for saving her. And he went to tell his wife that he barely fought off the chicken army; There were countless dead after the battle, and those unfortunate ones who did not manage to hide in time had their eyes pecked out by chickens and inflicted severe wounds.
Several days passed, and the fool completely recovered from her fear, forgot about the chicken army, when suddenly a messenger from the court came to the house. He heard, he said, that the owner had found a treasure here, and ordered her and her husband to appear in court. They came to court, and the qadi asked:
- Hey, woman! They reported to me that you found a large pot of gold. Is this true?
- Right! - the fool answers.
- It's not true! - the husband shouted. - After all, she doesn’t have everything at home! She herself does not know what nonsense she is talking about. Dear Effendi! Have you ever seen a woman find a treasure, let alone my klutz?!
Kadiy turns to her again:
- Tell me, woman! Did you really dig money out of the ground?
- Yes! - the fool answers. - They are hidden at our house.
The husband sees that the chatterbox cannot keep his mouth shut, but then it dawned on him and he exclaimed:
- I conjure you with the Koran, qadi, don’t believe it, stupid! Can she be trusted?! I’m telling you the truth, ask her yourself when she found the treasure!
Kadiy listened to his husband and asked. And the fool answers:
“I found a treasure before the hordes of chickens moved towards us during the war and pecked out your eye!”
But I must tell you, the Kadi was blind in one eye. He got really angry and started yelling:
- Knock this fool out!
The servants kicked the woman out of court. So the smart man got rid of the attacks of the court and saved the found treasure.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru