In the old days, in one region there was such a custom: old people who could no longer earn their own bread were taken to the forest and left there.
In those days, there lived in these parts an old man, the old man had a son, and the son also had a son. The old man's son began to notice that his father was no longer the worker he had been before, and that it was time for him to go to the next world. Noticing this, the son took the sled from his son, put his old father on it and took him to the forest. And the grandson ran after the sled. The son brought his father to the forest, overturned the sled and said:
- Lie here with the sled!
And my little son, a smart boy, says:
- No, father, I won’t leave my sled here!
– What do you need such a poor sled for?
- And if I don’t have them, then how will I take you to the forest when you grow old and wither?
Hearing such speeches, the old man's son became thoughtful: “Look,” he thinks, “my own son promises me the same end that I inflicted on my father. No, that’s not good!”
The son put his father back on the sled and took him home. But at home he did not dare to keep his helpless father with him in front of everyone, so he hid the old man in the cellar, where he fed and watered him.
Soon a terrible famine broke out in that region. No one had a grain of rye, and rarely did anyone have a handful of barley.
The old man in the cellar had long ago begun to notice that people were doing poorly, because his son gave him only barley bread, and even that only for one bite. One day an old man asks his son:
- Why don’t you give me a single loaf of rye bread?
The son answers:
“There is terrible hunger throughout the entire region; no one else has a grain of rye; great trouble has arrived - not only is there nothing to eat, but there is not even a handful to sow.
“These are difficult times,” the old man sighed, “but listen, son, I’ll give you advice on how to at least get enough grain to sow.” Open half the roof over the barn and thresh the old straw again and see how much grain is left in it.
The son did as his father told him: he opened half the barn, again threshed the straw from the roof and collected a whole measure of rye grains. Having done this, the son again went to his father in the cellar and told him that he had threshed a measure of rye from old straw,
His father tells him:
- Open the other half of the roof and thresh the old straw there too, and see how much grain is left in it. The son did as his father told him: he opened the second half of the barn, threshed the old straw from the roof again and again picked up a whole jar of rye grains. Then the father says:
- Now sow the rye!
The son sowed, and the next summer he produced such fat rye that he had enough to sow the next year.
Seeing this rye, all the people of the hungry region are amazed, where did such bread come from, if no one had a grain? The landowner himself heard about the harvest, ordered the farmer to be called to him and asked:
- How do you get a whole field of rye when no one in the whole region has a grain of rye?
The son thought for a moment, then gathered his courage and told the whole truth, as his old father gave him good advice. And the landowner asks:
- Where is he, your father, why can’t he be seen or heard?
The son answers:
- I keep it in the cellar!
It was then that the landowner and all the inhabitants of that region immediately realized that the old people were useful, and this benefit was in good, wise advice.
From then on, people never killed their old people again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru