Once upon a time there lived one Kusa, he had a wife and a son. One day Kusa fell ill, called his son to him and said:
“My son, take and sell our cow, and bring the money home and hide it.” What if I die, spend it on a funeral and bury me with honor.
Fulfilling his father's request, the son drove the cow to the market. Suddenly he met three mullahs who saw that a little boy was driving a large cow with difficulty. They stopped him and asked:
-Where are you driving the cow?
“To the market, to sell,” he answered.
The mullahs whispered, consulted with each other, and said to the boy:
- The market is far away, don’t bother in vain, sell it to us!
The boy agreed, the mullahs gave him a skullcap of dried mulberries, took the cow and left. The boy, heading home, began to eat mulberries with pleasure. By the time he got home, he ate one mulberry skullcap and brought the rest to his father. The sick father raised his head from the pillow and asked him:
- Son, did you sell the cow?
“Yes, I sold it, and I got this for a cow,” and the boy handed the mulberry tree to his father.
Kusa unfolded the scarf and saw a mulberry tree. He rummaged through it, but did not find any money and, amazed, asked:
- Where is the money you received for the cow?
“The mullahs gave me only this,” the son answered him.
“Oh, stupid child,” said Kusa indignantly, “you have been deceived by fraudulent mullahs!” As soon as I get better a little, I’ll come up with a punishment for them!
After two days, Kusa felt better and began to think about how to take revenge on the fraudulent mullahs. He brought his donkey out of the stable, washed and cleaned it, and, putting three gold coins in its mouth, led it to the market.
At the market, Kusu was surrounded by people, people began to ask the price of the donkey. Kusa asked for one hundred gold pieces for it. Buyers, hearing the high price, left in surprise.
Some time passed. Fraudulent mullahs came to the market and saw Kusa with a clean, fat donkey. They approached him and asked:
- Hey, Kusa, how much are you asking for the donkey?
- One hundred gold.
- What special qualities does your donkey have that you ask so much for it? - asked the surprised mullahs.
“This donkey spits out gold,” said Kusa, “as soon as he screams, he throws the gold out of his mouth.”
“Okay, we’ll test it now,” the mullahs said and began to watch the donkey.
Soon the donkey raised his head, screamed, and a gold piece fell out of his mouth. The mullahs whispered, consulted and decided to stand and watch the donkey some more. If gold comes out of his mouth again, they will buy it.
After a while, the donkey screamed again, and another gold piece fell out of his mouth. The mullahs believed that the donkey spits out money and bought it for one hundred gold pieces. At the same time Kusa told them:
- Don’t forget that this donkey needs to be well looked after, you need to constantly wash and clean it. If you don't do this, it won't spit out gold.
“Okay, okay,” said the mullahs and took the donkey away.
They walked far from the market, suddenly the donkey saw a pile of dust and began to roll around in it. He lay there for a long time and, when he was all covered in dust, he stood up. The mullahs immediately took him to the water, began to wash his face and body, then dried him with their silk embroidered scarves. So they drove the donkey home, cleaned the stable, threw straw into it and brought the donkey in.
At midnight the donkey cried. The mullahs quickly jumped up, lit a lamp and ran to the barn. They searched and searched and finally found the gold one. Now they were completely confident in the donkey’s ability to spit gold and, extremely joyful, said:
“Let your pains and troubles, donkey with a golden treasury, fall on us,” and they kissed the donkey, combed its tail and mane, threw sweets and raisins into its feeding trough.
Morning has come. The donkey screamed again. The mullahs jumped up and ran to the barn. They dug through all the straw and threw it away, but found no gold. Soon again
the cry of a donkey was heard, the mullahs again searched everything, but found nothing. Then they realized that Kusa had deceived them.
Angry, they took sticks in their hands, declared Kusa an unbeliever and began to look for his house.
Kusa knew that if not today, then tomorrow the mullahs would realize his trick and come to him. He began to look for a way out of how to get rid of them, went into the forest, caught two hares there, he hid one hare in his bosom, gave the other to his wife and said:
- I'll go to the field to plow. When the mullahs come to us, tell them where I am. After the mullahs come to me, you cook a dish of delicious pilaf and bring it to me.
As soon as Kusa was about to leave the house, the mullahs, shouting and making noise, approached his gate and began to knock heavily on it. Kusa's wife came out to the mullahs and asked:
- Who do you need?
- We need Kusa - a swindler and an atheist!
- He went to the field to plow, go there.
With noise and uproar, the mullahs went to Kusa on the field. He immediately left plowing, went to meet them and, putting both hands to his chest, bowed politely and asked:
“Oh, dear mullahs, what kind of atheist could have offended your pure and holy hearts, what kind of unscrupulous person could have disturbed your clear conscience?!”
The mullahs shouted in one voice:
“You, you have offended our holy hearts, you have disturbed our clear conscience!”
- I?! - Kusa was indignant. - But if so, punish me! Just first allow me to treat my dear guests to fatty pilaf, I consider it my sacred duty to treat my honorable guests.
With these words, Kusa took out a hare from his bosom and said to him:
- Run and tell my wife to quickly cook and bring here a dish of fatty pilaf, you yourself come back with her!
Kusa let go of the hare, who ran as fast as he could and soon disappeared from sight.
Less than an hour had passed when the poor woman came to the field with a dish of pilaf in one hand and a hare in the other. The mullahs ate the delicious pilaf with great appetite, then began to whisper and consult among themselves. The eldest mullah said:
- Okay, we’ll donate a hundred gold pieces, but we need to take possession of his hare. As soon as we take possession of it, it will carry out all our orders, and the people, delighted with our miracles, will believe in us even more.
All three mullahs liked this proposal and said to Kusa:
- Sell us your hare!
- No, I won’t sell it, it’s impossible to find another such a good assistant!
The mullahs began to beg him:
- Well, sell it to us! We refuse the hundred gold pieces that we gave for the donkey, and for the hare we will give you another hundred gold pieces!
“Okay,” said Kusa, “if you ask so, I’ll give it to you!” The mullahs gave him one hundred gold pieces, took the hare and left.
On the way, they consulted and decided: “Our neighbor wanted to arrange a sacrifice, let’s go tell him to start it, that we have such a messenger. who will quickly call everyone together for this treat.”
The mullahs came home, called their neighbor and told him about the wonderful hare. The neighbor hurried to call two or three helpers, they slaughtered a sheep, placed large cauldrons on the fireplaces and began to cook pilaf.
The mullahs, holding a hare in their hands, shouted:
“Run and call all the people of the village to our neighbor’s sacrifice,” and they let him go. The hare immediately disappeared.
The flatbreads had already been baked, the pilaf was cooked, but there was no word of the guests. The hot cakes cooled down, the pilaf was rotten, the mullah’s neighbor was forced to climb onto the roof and shout:
- Oh people, what kind of people are you, you learned about the invitation, but you don’t go to the pilaf!
“We haven’t heard about the invitation,” people said, gathering one by one.
“How come you didn’t hear?!” the mullahs were amazed. “After all, our messenger invited you!”
People were amazed and asked: “Who is your messenger?”
“We sent a bunny,” said the mullahs.
“We saw one bunny,” said the neighbors, “but he quickly rushed off into the forest!” How can a dumb hare call people together?!” People laughed.
And again the mullahs realized that they had been deceived, and with shouts and screams they went to Kusa, who was already waiting for them. Immediately after selling the hare to the mullah, Kusa returned home, killed the rooster, tore off its skin, filled it with blood and said to his wife:
“When the mullahs come, you quickly tie this skin around your neck.” I will hit you on the neck once with a stick, you fall and pretend to be dead, and when I hit you again, you sneeze and get up.
After some time, shouting and noise from the mullahs was heard. Kusa's wife quickly tied a rooster skin filled with blood around her neck. The husband took a stick in his hand and got ready.
The mullahs broke the gates of Kusa, cursing him, entered the courtyard and, raising their fists at him, shouted:
“You are a deceiver, you are an infidel, you are an atheist, we will destroy you!”
- Why are you pestering me like that? - Kusa shouted, trying to outshout the mullahs. “Apparently, until I commit suicide or kill my wife, I won’t get rid of
from you! - and with these words he hit his wife once on the neck with a stick, blood flowed from the wife’s neck, and the wife fell to the ground as if dead.
The mullahs were greatly frightened and, stunned, froze in place, then suddenly rushed to the gate. Kusa blocked their way and said:
- O mullahs, do not be afraid, do not grieve! This stick of mine can resurrect the dead, now I will resurrect my wife with it.
The astonished mullahs stopped and saw that Kusa hit his wife once with a stick; she first moved, then sneezed and rose from the ground. The mullahs immediately began to whisper and, after consulting, decided to buy this stick.
“With this stick,” said the elder mullah, “we will resurrect the dead, we will receive large gifts from their relatives, and we will become so rich that even the pillars of our houses will be made of gold.”
And again, with prayers and requests, they persuaded Kusa to sell them his stick.
The mullahs were walking home with a stick and suddenly heard loud crying for the dead man. They went to this cry and saw that people had gathered near one courtyard, and in the courtyard women were mourning the deceased with sobs and lamentations.
“Tell the women to stop crying,” said the mullahs. “We will now resurrect the dead man!”
“How will you resurrect him?” people asked.
“With this stick that resurrects the dead!” answered the mullahs.
- This stick is probably like your messenger hare! Hey, get out of here! We don't trust you anymore! - the people shouted.
“If you don’t believe me, then look here, we will kill you all now, and then we will resurrect you again.” Saying this, the elder mullah picked up a stick and began to beat people. But none of the people died, or even fell to the ground. People snatched the stick from the mullah's hands and began to beat the mullahs themselves with it. The mullahs could not bear the beatings and ran away, dropping their turbans and caushes.
After this incident, people completely lost faith in the mullahs, and this was the greatest punishment for the mullahs.
So the clever Kusa deservedly punished the fraudulent mullahs who did not hesitate to deceive his little son.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru