One man had a beautiful wife, but they had no children. When a few years later she became pregnant, the couple were very happy and asked God to give them a boy.
“I can promise you,” a husband once said to his wife, “that you will give birth to a son, not a daughter.” Our son will bring us a lot of joy, and we will receive great benefit from him when he grows up. I want to give the boy a beautiful name.
However, his wife objected to him:
“Do not rush to rejoice in advance, lest what happened to the man who had the jar of oil and honey happen to you.”
- What happened to him? - asked the husband.
And his wife told him the following story:
Once upon a time there lived a man who received a generous portion of oil and honey every day from a rich man's house. He fed himself with this, and poured the rest into a jug, which hung in one of the corners of his home. Eventually the jug was filled to the brim with honey and oil.
One day this man was lying on his back near the jug, holding a cane in his hand and, dreaming, thinking out loud:
“I’ll wait until the prices for honey and oil rise, then I’ll sell the contents of the jug and buy goats with the proceeds.” They will multiply quickly, producing new kids every five months. I will sell them and buy a bull, cows, a small estate, and arable land. I’ll hire peasants, let them sow and reap, and I’ll earn money from a rich harvest. This is how I will make a fortune for myself. Then I will buy a big beautiful house, acquire male and female slaves and marry a beauty. She will get pregnant, give birth to my son, and I will give him a beautiful name. But if he becomes mischievous, I will punish him. If he allows himself to disobey me, I will beat him with this cane.
Having daydreamed like this, he hit the jug with all his strength with his cane, imagining that he was punishing his son, and broke the jug. A thick stream of honey and oil flowed down this man’s face, and he was left with nothing.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru