Once upon a time there was a fool, and unfortunately, he decided to get married, but he didn’t know how to woo the girl. There was nothing to do, he asked his mother to bring him his wife. OK. And at that time my mother’s geese were sitting on eggs, so they needed an eye and an eye. Therefore, having gathered for the bride, the mother punished the fool:
- If the geese leave the nest, you let them splash around, but only for a while. Don't yawn, drive back so the eggs don't get cold!
The mother left, but the fool couldn’t take his eyes off the geese. Suddenly one goose came off the nest, cackled and rushed into the river. And the fool drives her, drives her back, but that’s not the case: as soon as he comes from one bank, like a goose to another, he will come up from the other, and the goose will come back. Yes, the fool suddenly remembered: the eggs will get cold, there will be trouble! He rushed headlong into the barn: he would sit in the nest himself. He sits and sits, and then the goose returns, and he still sits. The goose cackles:
- Ha-ga-ha! Go away, go away!
And the fool sat down - it’s so good to sit! - and not moving. His mother and bride arrived in the evening, and he cackled like a gander and ran towards him to see his young wife. The mother guessed what happened, and let’s lament:
- Oh, what a fool you are, what a fool! You just sat in the goose’s nest and crushed all the eggs, look who you look like!
Then the fool realized that he had crushed the eggs, but he didn’t even move his ears: he looked around, shook himself off - and okay! When you work, sometimes your clothes get dirty, so how can you protect yourself?
And the bride frowns and thinks: “Something is wrong, I’ll wait until nightfall and run home.” And then at night she says to the groom:
- Wait for me, I'll be right back!
And the fool remembered: “You can’t let her go. After all, her mother punished her at dinner: “Hold on, son, and hold on tight to the good that I brought you today, my wife is a treasure!” I’ll tie her on a rope and then let her out, that way it will be more certain.”
OK. He tied the bride to a rope, released her into the yard and immediately pulled her back. And the girl managed to untie the knot, tied a goat to a rope, and ran away. The fool dragged the goat into the hut and in the darkness he could not understand anything. He asks his mother:
- Mother, what is that knocking on the floor? Does my wife have shoes? - Yes, son, like all wives.
The fool touched the goat and asked:
- Mother, doesn’t my wife even have horns?
- Yes, son, all wives have strong horns!
He felt the goat's beard and shouted:
- Mother, my wife has hair all over her face!
- Yes, son, wives have long hair, and so does yours!
Finally he felt the tail and said:
- Mother, my wife has a tail!
The mother has no idea what kind of tail it is. She lit the candle and looked:
- Yes, it’s a goat, son!
- Here you go! “Then the fool realized: apparently, the bride ran away from me!” We need to catch up!
He ran and ran and finally caught up. And the bride took it and stood on all fours in the middle of the road, the fool ran up, but couldn’t see it in the darkness. “A fence,” he thinks, and well, he runs back for an ax to destroy the fence, and while he was running, the bride had already reached the house.
That's how the fool was left without a wife, and since then all fools have lived like idiots.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru