The night has come for a traveling merchant on the road. So he turned into the village trattoria. The merchant put the box in which he carried the goods in the corner and asked the hostess to prepare dinner.
The hostess went to the kitchen to fry eggs and pork. She lights brushwood in the fireplace, and she thinks: “I would like to know what the guest has in the box.”
He fries eggs, and says to himself: “The box is apparently full of all sorts of things. When the merchant put him in a corner; the floor began to shake.”
The hostess hands the frying pan to the guest, and looks askance at the box. “What use is this box to anyone! One housewife will buy a ribbon, another will buy a buckle... All the goods will go to pieces. And if all this were in one hand... In mine, for example!” Meanwhile, the guest ate scrambled eggs, wiped the frying pan with a crust of bread and dozed off right there on the bench.
And the hostess ran to her husband and whispered:
- Oh, if you only knew what the merchant has in his box! And you would have enough for a jacket and pants, but there’s nothing to say about me! I wish I could sew some dresses for myself! How to make the merchant leave, but the box remains?
“Nothing could be simpler,” answered the husband. - Give him some infusion of datura herb. Anyone who drinks even a drop of this infusion will lose their memory. The guest will leave and forget the box. This is what we will get.
The wife was very happy. She ran to the meadow, picked datura herbs, brewed it in a teapot and poured three drops of infusion into a glass of wine.
And the merchant still sleeps and sleeps on the bench. The hostess pushed him aside and said:
- Wake up, sir, I brought you a glass of wine.
“Well, I didn’t order wine,” the merchant was surprised.
“We have this order in the trattoria,” explained the hostess, “whoever orders scrambled eggs gets free wine.”
- You have good order! – the merchant exclaimed and drained his glass in one gulp.
Then he lay down more comfortably and began snoring again.
The owner and hostess also lay down, but sleep did not come to them. All night they whispered about how they would use the unexpected wealth. Both fell asleep only in the morning. And they woke up with the sun still beating into their eyes.
The hostess got up, looked into the room where the guest was sleeping, and began to scold her husband.
“You’ve lived to see your gray hairs, but you still believe other people’s stories and fool me.” You old fool! Tell me that your datura grass is worth it! There is no box, the guest took it away.
“Well, he took the box away, which means he forgot something else,” said the husband. - Datura grass will certainly do its job.
“Yes, I’m telling you, he didn’t forget anything!” - the wife screamed.
“This can’t be,” the husband insisted. Once I took a sip of the broth, I should forget.
Here the wife slapped herself on the forehead.
- That's how it is!
“You see, I’m right,” said the satisfied husband. - What did he forget?
– He forgot to pay for dinner and overnight stay, that’s what he forgot!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru