A long time ago, there lived an old man, Burel-dey. One day he killed his only ox, but gave only the peritoneum to his wife, and ate the rest himself. Greed overcame the old man, and he kicked the old woman out of the yurt. The old woman cried and went around the world. I met a black raven on the road.
- Why are you crying, old man? - asked the raven.
- How can you not cry? The old man slaughtered our only ox, gave me only the peritoneum and drove me out of the yurt.
“Give me the peritoneum,” says the raven. “You won’t be full of it anyway.” And I'll give you some advice.
The old woman agreed. Then the raven said:
— Cross this pass, you will see a horse’s head grazing goats. Hide, and when the head drives the goats and crawls into the mortar to sleep, take a bronze pestle, break the mortar, and take the goats for yourself. The old woman crossed the pass and saw a horse's head grazing goats. She did as the raven ordered. And she began to live in a birch bark tent, herding goats, and she kept thinking about the old man:
- We should check on him.
She took two pieces of dried cottage cheese and went to old man Bureldey. He approaches the yurt and there is no one around. She looked through the crack and saw an old man - very thin, his bones covered with skin, weak from hunger. The old woman threw a piece of cottage cheese into the smoke hole, the old man began to come to life from just the smell and began to cry:
- Oh, my blue sky, oh, my rich taiga, you did not leave me in trouble.
Then the old woman entered the yurt. The old man cried with joy that his wife had returned. The wife sewed clothes for the old man from the skin of an ox, he became a shepherd, and she milked the goats. That's how we lived.
One day, when his wife was milking the goats, the old man, sitting on a stone, sneezed so hard that his shirt tore and the goats ran away. Only the goat's tail remained in the old woman's hands. The old man went in search of goats and never returned. The old woman was left alone again.
One day an old woman hears a voice from the yurt:
- Mom, the tea has boiled, come quickly.
I went into the yurt and couldn’t believe my eyes: a little naked boy was running around.
- Where did you come from, son?
- I am Goat's Tail. I will be your son. They began to live together. Soon the yurt ran out of food. What to do?
Goat Tail says:
- Don’t worry, mom, I’ll be back soon.
And he went to Karaty Khan. He hid in the sheep's wool and shouted:
- There is an evil spirit inside me!
The khan got scared and ordered the ram to be slaughtered and thrown away. He took the goat's tail from the ram and brought it to his mother. The old woman was happy: the khan gave a lot of meat. And the boy says:
- Where have you seen a khan give meat to a poor man?
- So, you stole from him?
- No, the khan’s servants brought and threw the meat. - Oh, son, we’ll get it from the khan.
“Don’t worry, the khan has a lot of meat, so he’s throwing it away,” the boy reassured his mother.
One day two brothers came to them.
- Help us punish Karaty Khan. The boy agreed. They came to the Khan's aal, he climbed into the ear of a large ox and shouted:
- I am an ox with an evil spirit, take me away! The khan heard and ordered the ox to be driven away. The brothers caught an ox and killed it, but gave the boy only lungs and a liver. The boy got angry and decided to punish them for their greed.
He came to Karaty Khan’s yurt, climbed into his clothes and began shouting:
- There is an evil spirit in these clothes! Karaty Khan is surprised that this happened to his property - he speaks in a human voice. There is nothing to do, I threw away my clothes.
Goattail dressed himself in a black silk robe, black hats, and a black sable hat and began to guard the two brothers. Seeing them, he began to shout:
“It’s not me, it’s not me, it’s the brothers who stole your ox, Karaty Khan.”
The brothers were afraid that Karaty Khan would catch them and punish them, they abandoned their horses loaded with ox meat and ran away.
“That’s what greed leads to: greedy people have no friends,” said the boy.
Goat's tail returned to the yurt with his mother, and they began to live and live and not know grief.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru