Once upon a time there was a pass on a mountain. People called this pass Three Years. They have long said about the pass: if anyone stumbles and falls there, he will live no more than three years.
People believed this and, when they walked along the pass, they tried to be very careful, they were afraid that they would fall.
One day, in the hot summer, an old man was walking through the pass - returning home from the market.
“The sun is already setting to the west, I need to cross the pass before darkness. And the houses are probably waiting for me,” he thought and quickened his pace, but suddenly tripped over a stone and fell.
- What should I do now? “I have three years left to live now,” the old man groaned and barely dragged himself home.
Before he could enter the house, he immediately called his wife, son and daughter.
- Listen, wife, listen, my children! I'll probably die soon. I was just now walking through the Three Years Pass and fell! - the poor fellow said and began to cry.
From that day on, the old man did not eat or drink anything, and became completely ill. Doctors came, relatives bought various medicines, but nothing helped, the old man was getting worse.
The whole village found out about this.
And in that village there lived one smart boy. His name was Toltor. He learned about the old man's troubles and came to visit him.
- Grandfather, are you sick because you stumbled on the pass? Don't be afraid, there is a good remedy.
- What kind of remedy is this? - exclaimed the old man.
- Yes, it’s simple: you need to go to the pass and fall again.
- Oh, you scoundrel! Have you decided to completely finish me off? - the old man got angry.
“Listen to me, grandfather,” the boy reassured him. “Judge for yourself!” What does the belief say? If a person falls once, he will live for three years. So?
“Yes,” the old man nodded.
- Well, what if you fall twice? So you'll live for six years? What if you fall three times? The more you fall, grandfather, the longer you will live. Isn't that right?
“Yes, perhaps you’re right,” the old man agreed and slapped himself on the forehead.
He jumped out of bed and ran to the pass, and there, as if by accident, he stumbled and fell. Suddenly, from behind a tall tree that grew at the very top of the pass, he heard a dull voice:
- You're doing the right thing! If you fall once, you will live for three years, ten times, thirty years, and a hundred times, three hundred years.
The old man heard these words, thought that they were spoken by a deity, and was delighted:
“Yes, yes, O Almighty, make me live three thousand times sixty years!”
And the old man, let's roll on the ground from one side to the other. Once! Two! Three! I've skated a hundred times, maybe more. Finally, at the foot of the mountain, he rose to his feet, shook off his clothes and laughed:
- Now I will live as long as I want!
The old man returned home joyful and cheerful.
The grandfather, of course, did not know what the boy was shouting to him; he ran to the Three Years Pass in advance and hid in the bushes.
And when the old man got home, he was already completely healthy. After that, he worked in the fields as hard as before.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru