Once upon a time there lived a rich gentleman. He has never worked, so he has become so fat that he almost bursts. And no medicine helped him. Although he was extremely stingy, he still decided to notify everyone that he would give a measure of gold to the one who would remove excess fat from him.
OK. Day after day passes, but the doctor does not appear. But then one day a poor little man named Janis comes to the master and says:
“I will cure you, master, only you will pay me three measures of gold for this, and you will also give your daughter to me.”
The master was reluctant at first, then began to bargain - maybe he couldn’t get it cheaper somehow, but Janis wouldn’t give in. Well, if it can’t be cheaper, then what can you do - the master promised Yanis three measures of gold and his daughter as a wife. So Janis orders the master to come to his little house in the evening, where he will begin to treat him.
OK. It’s just getting dark when the master brings his fat belly to Yanis’s yard. Janis immediately takes him into the house, sits him down at the table, and treats him to what God sent him. And Janis mixed a sleeping potion into the food. As soon as the master ate, he began to feel sleepy. Janis made a bed for him on the bench, and the master began to snore. Janis instantly pulled off his smart clothes, changed him into rags, pulled off his boots, and put them in bast shoes.
And Janis’s father was a charcoal burner and tar smoker. Janis took the master, dragged him to the tar mill and threw him away - sleep it off for now! At dawn, Janis changed into his master's clothes and lifted the master up.
- Well, stop lying around, it’s time to get to work, otherwise you’ll be left without a piece of bread!
The master tore his eyes open and did not understand anything, but when Janis pulled him out with a whip, the master soared. Janis forced him to light the stove.
At first the master will not understand what happened to him - in tattered clothes, bast shoes on his feet, for some reason he has to light the stove. Then he realized that it means that he died yesterday and went to hell, and the one who pushes him around is nothing other than the devil.
It goes on day after day. And the master doesn’t see anyone except the overseer in gentleman’s clothes. But he only forces you to work and feeds you bread and water—he doesn’t give you anything else.
A year has passed. There was no trace left of the master's belly. The gentleman is so slender and nimble that you wouldn’t even recognize him.
One evening, Janis again mixed a sleeping potion into his food; The master ate and fell down. Janis pulled off his tattered clothes, changed them into his master's clothes and took them to his shack.
And he arranged everything there as it was that evening when the master first appeared to him.
Before the master had time to open his eyes in the morning, Janis was already bothering him:
- Get up, master, you seem to have taken a good nap already? Isn't that enough?
The master's eyes are wide and he doesn't understand anything. He asks how long he slept? Janis replies that the master deigned to get a fair amount of sleep; during this time he, Janis, managed to go into the forest and chop brooms. The master doubted for a long time, but in the end he finally believed.
Janis invites the master to the table. He gets up and doesn’t recognize himself: thin and amazingly slender! The master couldn't be happier. Had breakfast and headed home
to the estate. So Janis earned three measures of gold and took the master’s daughter for himself.
Only later did Janis tell the master how he treated him, how he removed the fat from him. The master lived for a long time and knew very well what it was like to earn bread with his labor.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru