Once upon a time there lived a pastor and a landowner. They were brothers. The pastor was very God-fearing, but he could not get along with his brother, the landowner.
The landowner loved being told fairy tales. He always kept only those servants who knew many fairy tales. When one servant ran out of stories, he hired another. One day, the landowner drove away the old servant and wanted to take another one who would know more fairy tales, and at the same time would be a night watchman. Once three people came to him to hire themselves out as servants. The landowner took them all.
But one of them was a special master of fairy tales. He talks and talks, and when the master falls asleep, he goes out to walk around the estate. Then he will return and, if the master has woken up, he will tell again. While telling stories, he noticed a chest with money under the master’s bed. The next day he tells the landowner about the thieves, and at the end he asks bluntly:
- What would you do, master, if someone stole your chest of money?
- I would give him a second one like that to boot. The servant told his comrades about this. The next day, while telling stories, he kicked the chest out from under the bed and pushed it under his chair. The master had barely fallen asleep when the servant signaled to his comrades. They came and took the chest. The narrator also ran away with them.
After a little time, he read in the newspaper that the landowner was asking the man who had stolen his chest of money to come to him. He promises to give the thief a second one in return. Here comes a servant to the landowner. He gives him the second chest, but asks him to play some kind of joke with the pastor. Let him remain a fool.
The servant got down to business. He went to the river, caught crayfish, and bought two candles per crayfish. Then he went to the organist and got the keys to the church from him. He also bought himself a white robe and sewed wings onto it. Then he put a candle in each crayfish’s claws and lit them. By midnight he lit the chandelier in the church.
The organist saw the light in the church, got scared and ran to the pastor, saying - there are ghosts in the temple of God. The pastor grabbed the Bible and went to church. An angel comes out to him and says:
- Well, shepherd of human souls, your time has come to go to heaven. Just take all your stuff with you.
The pastor comes home, puts the goods on the cart and goes to church. While the pastor was away, the servant's accomplices sewed a leather bag and tied it to the bell tower on a long rope. The pastor has arrived. They helped him climb the bell tower and told him to climb into the bag. At first he hesitated, but eventually climbed in. So they lowered the sack, tied it to a cart and dragged it along the ground, and put the chest with money on the cart and drove off.
They drive, drive, and arrive at the lake. The road winds along the shore of the lake. At one turn we decided to let go of the longer rope and drag the bag through the water. And the pastor asks:
-Where are we now?
- In purgatory!
So they drove until they arrived at the estate. They drag a sack through a pigsty. Pigs: “Oink-oink!” The pastor asks again:
- What is it here?
- This is hell here!
Then they drag him into the poultry house with the geese. He asks again:
- What is it here?
- This is a host of angels!
There was a high arch on the estate. They pulled the pastor onto her by the rope to the very top and left her there, while they themselves left with the money.
In the morning the landowner asks:
- How did you, brother, get to heaven ahead of me? He freed the pastor from the bag. The pastor sees that he has been completely fooled and left penniless. Maybe he still is
makes money for himself.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru