Once in Istria, near the seashore, a shepherd was tending several cows and a dozen goats and sheep.
It was already past noon, and the sun burned the earth mercilessly. Suddenly the shepherd saw that three girls were sleeping on the soft grass. They were pitchfork sorceresses. All three are beautiful and so similar to each other that you can’t tell them apart. They lie motionless, as if they were really sleeping in a sweet dream. The boy, understandably, has no idea who they are; he thought that ordinary girls were tired, that the beauties, walking in the sun, lay down and fell asleep.
“But the sun will burn the girls!” thought the boy. “It’s a pity! Their faces are so white! Let me help them in trouble!”
The shepherd climbed onto a nearby linden tree, picked up curly branches, stuck them in the ground near the sleeping people, and the girls found themselves in the shade.
Soon the pitchforks woke up. They saw linden branches, were very surprised and began to ask each other who protected them from the sun's rays. In fact, the pitchforks could see perfectly well who was taking care of them - after all, sorceresses never sleep, but only pretend to sleep. They then asked each other that they wanted to check whether the boy would respond or not.
But the shepherd did not even think of confessing to the pitchforks - he took off running because he could not look at their hair - it sparkled like pure gold! However, at that same moment all three pitchforks were already near him. The boy was unable to escape from them. The beauties asked what he wanted as a reward for sheltering them from the hot sun. The boy did not dare ask for anything. Pitchfork decided to give him a magic wallet - it never loses sequins. But the shepherd did not like the gold coins: he did not know what money was. But he didn’t want to play with yellow circles and admire them at all - it was much more fun to tinker with live calves, cows and sheep, he loved them more than anything in the world.
The pitchforks themselves understood this and said:
“When you drive the herd towards the village in the evening, the ringing of bells will be heard behind you. Look, don’t even think about looking back until you come to the house itself.
They said and immediately disappeared.
It was only then that the boy realized that in front of him were not ordinary girls, but sorceresses.
The sun sank lower and lower towards the sea, and the shepherd drove his flock home. The closer he came to the village, the stronger the ringing of bells became behind him. The boy forgot what the pitchforks had told him, and just halfway along the way he turned around to see who was driving so many cattle after him. And he saw sheep, cows and goats coming out of the sea and following his little herd. But as soon as the boy turned around, the cattle stopped coming out of the sea onto land. The shepherd brought home only those who managed to go ashore. And if he had listened to the sorceresses, his herd would have been much larger. But that was enough for the shepherdess. The boy did not ignore his poor neighbors - he shared with everyone the cattle that the pitchfork awarded him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru