Whether it happened or not, in ancient times there lived two people. One was called Datua, the other Petrikela, and they were both great rogues.
One day Datua took out a bag, filled it tightly with moss, put some wool on top and took it to sell. When he began to climb the slopes of the ridge, Petrikela came across him. Petrikela also had a large sack on her back, and it was stuffed with walnut shells. Only the top of the shell was covered with real nuts.
- Hello! - Datua shouted.
- Hello! - Petrickela answered.
-Where are you coming from and where are you going?
- Yes, I’m here to sell nuts. Where are you coming from, tell me?
“Brother, I’m bringing wool to sell.” I just now had a good idea. There will be no benefit for us if we and our cargo begin to trudge along such a difficult road back and forth. We’ll just wear out the dudes! Let’s exchange bags: you take the wool to your places to sell, and give me the nuts - I’ll also go back to mine and sell them.
- Good idea! It’s stupid to trudge along such a difficult road. It's better for us to return to our places. Here, take my nuts, and in return give me your bag of wool.
So, suspecting nothing, the rogues exchanged bags, and each went to his own home.
They walked part of the way and, when they stopped seeing each other, they stopped and hastily opened each of their bags. They see - they deceived each other!
They got annoyed and grumbled, but nothing could be done!
After some time, the rogues met. After the greeting, Datua said to Petrichela:
“I thought that I was the only rogue, but it turns out that you, brother, are in no way inferior to me!”
- Here's another! Why be surprised here, brother? If you can cheat, why shouldn't I?
- Well, let's buddy up! - Let's!
- We both have no money, nothing to trade - we will enter together into the service of some rich man - Let it be your way.
Chuvyaki are soft shoes without heels.
- The rogues began to look for places.
They walked and walked and finally learned that some old woman needed two workers. They came to the old woman and asked what kind of work she would give them and how much she would pay.
The old woman said:
- I have a cow and this house. One of you will have to drive the cow to the pasture with a pipe, jonguri and a tambourine, because my cow loves to dance to music, and the other will have to work at home: sweep the floor, clean up and take the garbage somewhere away. I will feed you for this and pay you money. If you agree, come to me.
- Why don’t you agree? We agree! - Datua and Petrikela answered at once.
The next day, Petrikela stayed at home to manage, and Datua took with him some bread, a tambourine, a pipe and a chonguri and drove the cow to pasture.
Petrikel somehow swept out all the corners, cleaned it up, collected the garbage in one pile, but was too lazy to take it away from the house: he decided to dump it in the neighbor’s yard.
As soon as he was about to dump the garbage, the owners of this yard attacked him and beat him painfully, saying:
“Don’t you dare dump your trash in our yard again!” Don't you dare!
Petrichela arrived covered in bruises and collapsed in the stable.
Eh, he thinks, it turns out that the neighbor’s yard is not for throwing garbage there!
And Datua the rogue also had a bad time: before his cow had time to go out to pasture, she began to run and jump across the field from end to end, and she rushed like this until the evening, not giving her legs a rest.
And Datua did not give rest to his legs: he ran after the cow, strummed the chonguri, blew the flute, beat the tambourine with all his might...
Only late in the evening did the cow stop jumping and galloping and return home. Datua also returned for her. He was so exhausted from running around that food wouldn’t go into his mouth. He entered the stable and asked Petrichela:
- What’s wrong with you, brother, aren’t you sick?
- Why did you decide that I was sick?
Flute, chonguri, tambourine are Georgian folk musical instruments.
- Why are you lying down?
“Well, I swept out the house, the yard, and the barn, and dumped the garbage in the neighbor’s yard.” And there the neighbors, as soon as they saw me, invited me to visit, invited me to the table and treated me nicely. I'm tired of this treat, and the wine makes me a little dizzy. Tell me how you spent your time.
- Not bad either! I came to the field, beat the tambourine, struck the strings of the chonguri with my fingers and blew it on the flute. Then my cow started dancing Lezginka (Caucasian dance). A whole crowd of men and women gathered to have fun with us. Can you imagine - I brought the bread back home and forgot to eat!
- If so, brother, then tomorrow I will go to graze the cow, and you will stay and feast with our neighbors!
“Let it be your way, I don’t want to offend you with a refusal,” said Datua.
The next day, Petrikela experienced the same thing as Datua: the cow forced him to run all day without a break. And Datua received the same thing as Petrikela: his neighbors beat him so much that he could barely drag his feet to the barn.
At night they confessed their cunning to each other and began to consult.
“If we don’t get out of here,” they said, “we’ll either die of hunger or beatings.”
Datua and Petrikela decided to flee without delay. But the trouble was that in the evenings the old woman herself tightly locked the doors from the outside and it was impossible to leave. Petrikela said:
- Here's what we'll do: put our belongings in a bag. Let one of us give his back to the other and help him climb out through the gap in the ceiling of the barn onto the roof. From there it will be possible to lower the rope and lift the bag with our belongings and the one who will remain below - You came up with a wonderful idea! — Datua approved. “I’m stronger than you and I can equally easily pull both the bag with our belongings and you out of the barn!”
Petrikela immediately put his back up, and Datua climbed out onto the roof.
Then Petrikela put his belongings in a bag, climbed into it himself and shouted upward:
- Hey, friend! Pull our property and lower the rope back down!
Datua picked up the bag, put it on his back and started to run, not caring at all about his friend.
He ran a long distance, got tired, wanted to rest and threw the bag on the stones.
- Shut up, devil! It hurts me! - Petrickela shouted and climbed out of the bag.
- You yourself are the devil! Do you know how heavy my lower back hurts!
- Well, what is my fault? If we hadn’t deceived each other, we wouldn’t have had pain in either our lower back or our sides,” said Petrikela.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru