In ancient times, there lived in a large village a kind and hard-working man, and he had a wife who was so angry and grumpy that you couldn’t find another like her even if you walked around all the villages three times. She argues with everyone, she scolds everyone, she finds fault with everyone, she does everything the opposite, she has quarreled with everyone in the village. And the poor husband couldn’t live from her at all. He does everything wrong, he says everything wrong. He goes into the forest to get firewood, brings dry firewood - the wife scolds:
- Why did you bring dry firewood, donkey? I need raw ones!
If he brings them raw, it’s not like that again:
- Why did you bring raw firewood, donkey? I need dry ones!
So she tormented him day after day, not giving him a moment’s peace. Completely exhausted.
One day he went into the forest to collect brushwood. He collected a large bundle, got very tired and sat down under a tree to rest. He sits and thinks: how to continue to live, where to go? You can’t run away from an evil wife—she’ll find you. You can’t drive him away - he won’t leave. To answer abuse with abuse, you will go completely crazy. What to do?
He looked around and suddenly saw a hole not far away. A man looked into the hole - the bottom was not visible, it was such a deep hole.
“If only an evil scold fell into this pit,” he thought, “it would feel better for me and the whole village!”
He returned home and said:
- What a deep hole I found!
And the wife responded:
- You're lying, you didn't see any hole!
But my husband doesn’t seem to hear.
“There is a lot of gold in this pit,” he says. Prepare me bags and ropes. I'll go tomorrow and get the gold.
“No,” the wife shouts, “I won’t let you in!” Everyone knows what an ass you are. You'll go, but you won't bring back much. No, I’d better go myself and get all the gold out of the pit!
The next day, early in the morning, she woke up her husband and ordered him to lead him to the pit. The husband walks ahead, carries bags and ropes, and the wife walks behind, urging him on and scolding him:
- Go, go faster! Look, your legs don’t even bend! You're no good! We need to rake the gold out of the hole and throw you into this hole!
So she scolded me all the way to the forest.
They came to the forest, to a pit. The husband began to tie himself with ropes, as if he wanted to go down into the pit.
“Now,” he says, “I’ll go down into the hole, and you sit on the edge, holding the rope as tightly as possible.” When I pull the rope, know that you need to pull me up.
And the wife, as always, argues:
- So I’ll sit on the edge and wait for you! I really need this! Wrap me in a rope and lower me into the hole. I’ll pour the gold into the bags myself! And you wait for me, don’t go anywhere!
And that’s all the poor man needs. He wrapped a rope around the evil woman and began to lower her into the pit. He lowered it deeper and let go of the rope from his hands:
- Let him live in a pit with devils if he can’t live with people!
He went home cheerful, joyful: he finally got rid of the abuse, the swearing, the shouting. Now his wife will not harass him, deafen him with screams and poke him in the sides with her fists.
He lived at home for a day, another, a week, but his heart was restless. He decided to go into the forest to the hole to find out what happened to his wife.
He approached the pit and heard screams, curses, curses, and groans coming from the pit. The man bent over the pit and began to listen: his wife was screaming and swearing, and someone else was moaning and groaning. Who would it be?
The man shouted into the pit:
- Hey, who's moaning there?
And two voices came from the pit. One shouts:
- Go away, donkey, it’s none of your business!
And another plaintively asks:
- Help me, good man! Get me out of this hole! I'm a monster. Here I was completely tormented by an evil woman. I'm dying!
“Why not help?” the man answers. “I’ll help you, I’ll save you, just take an oath that you won’t offend me.”
- What are you, what are you! Not only will I not offend you, but I will fulfill any of your requests, I will do everything you order for you. Just get it out quickly!
The man took pity on the monster and lowered a long, thick rope into the hole. The monster grabbed it with its claws and shouted:
- Drag!
The man began to pull out the monster, and the evil woman grabbed him by the tail and wanted to get out of the hole with him, but the monster shook its tail and threw her off.
The man pulled the monster out of the pit. It lay down on the grass, unable to catch its breath.
“I was,” he says, “many times more, but the evil woman tormented me so much, tormented me so much that I shriveled, became thin, and became many times smaller.” I don’t know how he’s still alive!
“You’re not very strong,” says the man, “if you’ve been so worn out in a week.” Apparently, I’m stronger than you if I’ve endured it for many years!
The monster finally recovered his breath and said:
- Well, good man, farewell and remember: I will fulfill your three requests. I will instantly fulfill everything you ask: if you want gold, you will have gold; if you want to become a king, you will be a king. There will be no objection to you on anything. And if you decide to ask for something for the fourth time, it will be bad for you: I will eat you and will not regret it!
This monster said and disappeared as if he had never existed. And the man went to his village.
A little time passed, this man heard bad news: some terrible monster had lain down near one aul, he was not letting anyone into the aul, and was not letting anyone out of the aul. Not only that: every day someone is grabbed and devoured. The village residents are suffering, but they don’t know what to do.
“Isn’t it the same monster that I pulled out of the hole?” the man thought. “Well, it promised to fulfill my three requests. I’ll ask it to leave people alone.”
He got on his horse and rode to that village.
He galloped up and saw: so it is, lying near the village is the same monster that he helped to get out of the hole.
A man approached the monster and said:
“Do you remember how I pulled you out of the hole and saved you from an evil woman?”
- I remember! - the monster answers.
- Do you remember how you promised to fulfill three of my requests?
- And I remember that!
- Well, now do the first good deed: get away from this village, don’t torture people!
“Okay,” the monster answers, “I’ll fulfill your request, I’ll leave!” And then it disappeared.
The village residents began to thank the kind man.
“Without you,” they say, “we would be completely lost.” Ask us what you want, we will give you everything!
“I don’t need anything,” the man answers, “I have everything.”
The news that one man had power over the monster spread far and wide throughout all the villages. Everyone talked about it and marveled.
A little time passed, people from a distant village came to this kind man and began to ask:
- Help us in trouble: a terrible monster lies down by the river, has closed the water and is not allowing anyone near it. We have nowhere to get water - neither to drink, nor to wash, nor to water the cattle.
“Okay,” says the man, “I’ll help you.” He galloped hastily to that village. He approached the monster and asked:
- Do you remember how I pulled you out of the hole and saved you?
- I remember! - the monster answers.
- Do you remember how you promised to do three good deeds for me?
- How can I not remember, I remember! Tell me, what else do you need?
- Now do the second good deed: open the water!
“Okay,” the monster answers, “let it be your way this time too!” - and at the same moment disappeared.
The river became free and the water began to flow. There was a cry of joy and laughter. All the inhabitants of the village poured out onto the shore, horses, cows, sheep came running there, everyone was drinking water and rejoicing.
The village residents began to offer the man gold, rich gifts, and horses, but he did not take it:
“I don’t need your gifts, I already have everything!”
He said goodbye and left.
A little time passed, and for the third time people came to him and again began to ask him to deliver them from the monster that was spoiling their crops, crushing them and trampling them.
And this time the monster did not argue - he did everything, only before leaving he hissed and said to the man:
- Well, your three requests have been fulfilled, as I promised you. Don't even think about asking me for anything else - I'll swallow you alive!
It is unknown how much time passed, rumors again reached that man that the monster had moved to another village. And not only rumors reached him - the residents of that village themselves came to him, asking him to help them.
“The monster won’t listen to me anymore,” says the man, “he won’t leave, and he’ll even swallow me if I come to him.”
And people do not lag behind him, begging him:
“If you don’t have pity on us, then at least have pity on our little children!”
“Eh,” the man thinks, “I won’t have to die twice, just once. Either I’ll come up with something to get rid of him completely, or I’ll disappear myself.”
He comes to the monster. Before he even had time to utter a word, the monster puffed up, hissed, extended its claws, began snapping its sharp teeth, and beating the ground with its long tail. It hits so hard that the stones crumble into the sand.
“I,” hisses, “warned you not to come to me more than three times with your requests.” But you didn’t listen and came for the fourth time? Well, blame yourself - now it’s the end for you! I'll swallow you!
The man laughed and said:
- You stupid monster! Did I really come to ask you for something? I won't ask you for anything. I just want to say that you are in trouble.
- What's the problem?
- Do you remember the evil woman who didn’t let you live in the pit?
- How can I not remember, I remember!
- Well, she got out of the hole, runs everywhere, looks for you and shouts: “Give him to me, I’ll deal with him, I’ll tear off his tail!” They say that she is not far away: she is about to come running to this village.
The monster was frightened and alarmed.
“Well,” he says, “if she got out of her hole, I need to quickly run away and hide!”
The monster rose, spun and disappeared. So from that day no one saw him again, no one heard about him again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru