One guy went to the market to sell a basket of eggs. He put the basket on a stick and carried it on his shoulder. The guy walks, walks, and he says:
“I’m laying three hundred eggs.” I’ll sell them at the market for money per egg, and I’ll get three hundred money; If I manage to sell them at two, I’ll get six hundred. With this money I will buy myself a pig. I will feed her, and she will bring me twelve piglets - all pigs. My twelve pigs will grow up, and each will bear a dozen piglets; and the piglets will grow up, farrow, and will also give birth to a dozen. Look - here you have a whole herd of pigs! I will graze this herd in the forest - let the pigs feed on acorns. They will eat acorns, fatten up, become fat, I will take them to the market. I’ll sell them all and get a lot of money. Then I’ll buy myself a good horse, and I’ll shave, wash, dress up, sit astride my white horse, hat on one side, and - off we go! I’ll gallop at full speed - straight to the Tsar’s court. When I arrive, I will ride a horse in front of the Tsar’s court from morning to evening; the horse will tear up the whole field with its hooves. And the princess’s daughter will sit on the high porch and look at me and admire me. And so I woo the Tsar’s daughter and marry her. And she will bear me a son, and we will call him Bogdancho. I'll go to the market and buy him apples. When I come home, Bogdancho will run out to meet me at the gate, and I will bend down and hug him and say: “Come to me, son Bogdancho, come to your uncle, he will give you an apple.”
The guy forgot, extended his hand - he wanted to show how he would hug Bogdancho’s son, and the stick slipped off his shoulder. The basket hits the ground! The eggs broke.
The guy cried:
- Oh, grief! All my wealth is gone!
He began to pick up the eggs - those that were not broken into pieces, and suddenly he saw a man following him along the road.
The guy felt ashamed, and so he asked a passerby:
- Tell me, brother, how long have you been following me?
And he answered him:
- From the moment you began to get rich until everything went to waste for you.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru