One very rich owner had three sons and two daughters. When he grew old and his strength began to leave him, he handed over his farm to his eldest son. His father lived with him, and then his eldest son got tired of messing with him. He advises him to go stay with his brothers - they, they say, have been waiting for him for a long time. The father obeyed and went to the middle one. He kept his father with him, and after a couple of months he began to send him away to his youngest son. The old man settled with the youngest, lived for a month, and this one began to reproach why the father did not live with his favorite, the eldest son, to whom he had denied all his property and home. The old man now went to his daughters. I lived with them for eight weeks, and I need to get out of there.
The old man had a habit of going to church on Sundays. However, now he had to give it up because he didn’t have good clothes. The old one is already completely worn out. And yet, one Sunday he gathered his courage and went as he was, in the old one that he wore every day. An old friend met him at church. He asks:
- Why are you so ragged, neighbor? After all, you were a rich man, a good owner?
Then the old man told everything how it happened. Too early, he gave his house to his son, divided the property, and now he himself has to walk like a beggar, carrying a bag from door to door.
The dear children became strangers and became cruel. It would be more likely for a dog to be fed than for an old father to be given a piece...
- OK. Just in the future, look, be smarter, and your affairs will get better. Take my advice: come to me, I have an old chest, I will give it to you. Just make as many keys for it as you have children, and when you come to them, try to make them notice the key in your hands. If they ask what kind of key this is, do not tell the truth, but say that it is the key to your hidden treasure. When you die, then, they say, you will give it to them... Okay. We must try. The father comes to his eldest son, takes out a shiny key and twirls it in his hands. The son noticed and asked what kind of key his father had.
- Ah, this is the key to my property. When I die, then you will get it. I can give you the key right now, and when I start to die, then I’ll tell you where my property is kept.
Having learned about this, the son immediately became kinder to his father and became courteous, as a son should be with his father. When the father wanted to go to church on Sunday, the eldest son gave him his new dress and drove him like a gentleman. Two other sons and daughters noticed this. They think: “But his father, apparently, is not a beggar at all, it’s not for nothing that his elder brother gave him his best clothes and carries him around like a gentleman.”
They all ran up to their father, greeted him, and each invited him to stay... The father went to his other sons and told them about his hidden goods.
Now the old man only needs bird's milk. The sons do whatever his heart desires, and there is no need to ask for anything. He lives in their bosom like Christ. One day his daughters meet him and say:
“The father is proud, he doesn’t even want to come to us... The youngest son ordered a new dress to be sewn for his father, and the middle son ordered new boots for his father, now the old man is dressed in everything new from head to toe and eats to his fill.
So many years passed, and then the old man fell ill. They brought the pastor. The old man gave all the keys to the pastor so that he would pass them on to his children after his death. When their father died, the children gave him a rich funeral. Then the pastor gave the children the keys. Everyone rejoices to themselves. They called the judges, the clerk, the volost elder, and they themselves appeared, each with his own key, and the bailiff and the constable stood with their swords drawn next to the chest so that everything would be divided fairly. They opened the chest and saw that it was completely empty. There is only an old staff and a piece of paper in it, on which it is written: “You need to beat the old one with a stick so that he doesn’t give away his goods to the children ahead of time.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru