Once upon a time there lived a grandfather and a woman. They lived by the sea, they had no children. It used to be that the grandfather would catch a fish, the woman would fry it, eat it, and have some left over. This is what she complains about:
“If we had kids, we’d eat the leftovers.” And they went to some grandmother, and she helped them so much that they ended up having two children. And as soon as the children appeared, fishing almost stopped, whatever the grandfather caught, the woman would fry it, feed the children, they themselves would eat the leftovers, and they would sit there hungry. They complain again:
- Since there were no children, there was something to eat, but now we are sitting hungry.
God took the children away. And when I cleaned it up, I stopped catching fish altogether.
“Look, Lord,” they complain, “how there were children, even though they fed near them, but when there were no more children, there were no more fish.”
The grandfather once went out to the sea, began fishing, and caught a crayfish. Brought it home.
“Light a fire,” he says, “even if we bake a crayfish.” And the cancer says: “Hey, grandfather, don’t bake me, but go to the sea and dip your arms up to the elbow in the place where you caught me.”
Grandfather went and pulled out a whole bag of money. He immediately bought what he needed, and soon spent that money. This is how I lived, again for cancer.
“Light a fire, woman, and we’ll bake the crayfish.” And his cancer was hidden somewhere in the closet all the time, Cancer asks:
“Don’t bake me, grandfather, but go to the place where you caught me, and stand knee-deep in the water.”
The grandfather went, climbed into the water and pulled out a large bag of money. And so my grandfather became rich with that money, and he acquired shops. One day the cancer says to him:
- Go, grandfather, woo the princess for me. - How can I marry you if you are a cancer? - Yes, go, - he says, - woo! The grandfather went to the king. “Give me,” he said, “your princess to my crayfish!” “What kind of crayfish?” “Yes, just a simple crayfish.” “How can you give him away,” he says, “if he’s a crayfish?” Well, okay, tell your cancer, we’ll give it to you when he has servants like me, and the same palace, and from his palace to mine there will be a bridge - one silver board, another gold, one gold pillar, and another silver, one silver nail, another gold, and when you go across that bridge, so that the gardens will bloom, and when you return, so that the fruits will already ripen.
Grandfather comes and tells the cancer.
“Well,” he says, “it’s possible.”
So my grandfather got up in the morning and was so scared: he had a bed and a palace even better than the royal one. He gets into the carriage and takes the crayfish with him, they drive along the bridge - gardens are blooming along it.
What to do here? The princess needs to go after the crayfish. They got married, and he lives behind the stove during the day, and becomes a fine man at night.
So the princess spied where he was hiding his shell, took it and burned it.
He woke up in the morning and to the shell. Oh, the trouble - but it’s not there.
“Well,” he says, “if you didn’t want to wait for me until the deadlines were fulfilled, then you won’t see me soon now.” But if you take the iron slips, when they break, then maybe I’ll come back. - He said and left.
So she lives and lives, she has already forgotten about him, suddenly she sees her shoes tearing, and then he returns.
And they began to live happily ever after.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru