Once upon a time, four brothers lived in the same city. And so they were not of God knows what intelligence, and they also developed the habit of smoking opium. So they dumped all their stuff. What they had left was a horse each and nothing more. The brothers gathered together and said:
“We need to get hired somewhere.”
They mounted their horses and rode wherever they could to look for service. Night found them in the forest. The brothers tied the horses to a tree, cooked porridge over the fire, poured it into a bowl and sat around - they were going to eat.
As soon as they brought the first spoon to their mouth, everyone said in one voice:
- Ugh! ugh! Our porridge has no oil at all. We need to go to the city for butter - then we’ll eat.
But all four of them were lazy. No one wants to trudge around to get oil from God knows where - everyone is nodding at each other. So it turned out that no one goes to the market and no one touches the porridge. Finally the elder brother says:
- No! It won't work that way. Let the one who says the word first go for the oil.
The brothers agreed and remained silently sitting around the bowl. Hour after hour passed, until midnight came, and none of the brothers even coughed.
Meanwhile, thieves wandered into the forest. They look - four people are sitting, silent and putting their fingers to their lips. The thieves came closer, but none of the brothers opened their mouths. Everyone thinks: “If I call them first, I’ll have to go get butter.” The thieves are nearby, and the brothers seem to have filled their mouths with water.
Thieves see it - it’s a good time. They untied the horses and led them away. There was no trace of them when the younger brother could not stand it and shouted:
- Oh, you fool! Our horses were stolen. What should we do now?
“You go to the city first, bring some oil, and then we’ll see,” the others tell him. “First we’ll eat, and then we’ll look for thieves and horses.”
Here the younger brother regretted his rashness, but what had been done could not be undone - he had to go for butter.
He returned from the market, the brothers ate porridge and began to think about how to find the horses. One says:
- That's it. Whoever casts his vote first in the morning is a thief. We will ask the horses from him.
- What if he doesn’t give it back? - asks another.
“If he doesn’t give it up, we’ll treat him with a club,” says the third.
That's what they decided on. The brothers stocked up on sticks and sat and waited. We sat up all night. It was getting light. At this time, in a mosque that stood on the edge of the city, not far from the forest, the mullah sang the morning prayer. The brothers perked up:
- Listen! - They say. - He's a thief. It was he who stole our mines.
The brothers grabbed their clubs and ran towards the voice. The doors of the mosque were open, the brothers burst in and began beating the mullah.
The venerable mullah got scared and started to run. He ran straight to the king and said:
- Huzur! Out of nowhere, four devils burst into the mosque. Almost got me killed.
The king became angry.
-Where are they? - asks.
And four brothers were already at the door - they came running after the mullah. The king saw them and said:
- Who are you? Why are you beating the venerable mullah? The brothers were seething with anger. They began to complain:
- Huzur. This man stole our horses. We spent the night in the forest and tied them to a tree. It was still in the evening. And at night we decided: whoever casts his vote first in the morning is the thief. Have mercy, Huzur, make him give us the horses.
The king sees that they are out of their minds. So he ordered to give them four horses, just to get rid of them.
And the brothers received horses and asked for a piece of land.
-What do you need land for? - asks the king.
“Huzur, we will put these horses there,” the brothers say. - Let's see what grows out of them.
The king gave them land not far from the city. The brothers surrounded their land with a fence, placed gates on all four sides, drove horses there, and remained to guard it.
A lot of time has passed. Tall, lush grass grew in the brothers' field. The horses were grazing, and the brothers were each sitting at their gates and smoking opium.
One day a man drove a herd of horses past their field - a hundred heads. He saw a green meadow with lush grass and quickly drove his horses there. The horses scattered across the field, nibbling grass, and the brothers, wasting no time, closed the gate. So the owner of the horses decided to drive his herd further, and the brothers attacked him with sticks.
-What are your mines here? - they shout. - Get away from here. All our horses are here! This is our grass! And the land is ours too!
The owner of the horses came to the king in tears and complained:
“Some people—there are four of them—won’t give me my horses.”
The king immediately thought that these must be the same four brothers who beat the mullah. He became very angry and ordered them to be brought.
Soon the brothers arrived at the palace.
– Get out of my domain now! - the king angrily told them. “You make too much of a mess.”
And the brothers folded their hands and asked: “What have we done wrong, Huzur?” Why are you kicking us out?
“Why did you take this man’s horses?” - says the king.
- Judge for yourself, Huzur! - the brothers ask. – Remember, you yourself gave us some land?
- Gave it. So what?
“Maybe you remember, Khuzur, why we asked for this land?”
The king smiled and said:
- How can I not remember! You were going to plant horses on it to see what would grow out of them.
The brothers rejoiced and made a noise:
- Huzur! We worked hard on it for a whole year: we plowed it, fertilized it, planted horses. And after so much work they received a harvest - a hundred horses. And this scoundrel came from God knows where and decided to steal them from us.
The king did not find what to answer. He had to let his brothers go. The owner of the horses left with nothing.
And the brothers now decided to trade horses and began to travel with them from city to city. They sold horse after horse and lived for their own pleasure. Only soon they didn’t have a single horse left. They had to look for services again.
The brothers walked and walked and ended up with one merchant. They began to ask to serve him. The merchant hired them.
So the brothers began to serve the merchant. One day my younger brother came hungry after work and went straight to the kitchen to eat. And there sat an old woman - the owner’s mother. She was over a hundred years old, and her head was shaking all the time from old age. The younger brother took a bite and chanced to look at the old woman, who was shaking her head. It seemed to the younger brother that she was not telling him to eat. “What a miser! - he thinks. “Here you go through so much torment, you do so much work, but she doesn’t even give you anything to eat - she sits in the kitchen on purpose.” The younger brother was in a hurry, swallowing piece after piece without chewing, and the old woman shook her head even more. The younger brother could not stand it, got angry and threw a jug of water right at her head. The old woman fell and lost her spirit. And the younger brother went to the merchant and grumbled:
“I won’t serve you anymore.” Your mother is so stingy - she doesn’t give you enough to eat.
- What are you doing, brother? – the merchant was surprised. - Why doesn’t she let you eat?
But the younger brother does not let up:
- No, master! Give me the calculation. I don’t want to serve in such a house.
The merchant sensed that things were not going well. I went to look for my mother. He looks - she’s lying in the kitchen and not breathing. Then he realized that the servant was a fool, but there was nothing to do - you couldn’t resurrect the dead. The merchant became sad, called all four brothers and ordered them to make funeral stretchers.
The brothers made a stretcher and laid the old woman on it. The merchant tells them:
“Carry her to the river bank, and I’ll get some firewood and something else and come after you.”
The brothers grabbed the stretcher and carried it away. In their haste, they didn’t even think about tying the body. On the way to the river they had to climb a hill. The climb was steep. The brothers climbed up the mountain, their stretcher tilted, and the deceased slid to the ground. The brothers feel that it has become easier to carry, and they walk more cheerfully. They came to the river bank, lowered the stretcher, and lo and behold, the old women were gone. The brothers got angry and said:
- Look! What a mischievous old woman she is. She pretended to die, but when she saw that they were going to burn her, she ran away. It’s okay, we’ll catch up with her!
The brothers rushed to look for the old woman and went to a village. And outside the outskirts, some old woman was collecting brushwood under the trees. The brothers ran up to her and started beating her. They beat me to death and dragged me to the river.
Meanwhile, the merchant got firewood, called his friends and went with them to the river bank. He goes and sees: at the foot of the hill on the road itself lies the body of his mother. The merchant became very angry at the foolish servants, picked up the body and carried it to the river.
And his brothers are already waiting for him there. They saw the merchant and ran at him shouting:
- Master! Your old woman is so harmful - she just ran away from the stretcher. We look - she has already gone for firewood. We were completely exhausted with her. If we had known in advance, we would never have come to serve you.
Then the merchant realized that they were out of their minds. He laid both old women on the fire and performed funeral rites over them. And then he drove the brothers away and returned home without them.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru