One spring, a farm laborer was chopping wood in the forest. Suddenly a cuckoo flew in from the direction of sunrise, sat on a tree and crowed:
“In the east there is a high mountain, on its top lies a piece of gold the size of a large bull’s head...
A second cuckoo flew in from the south, perched on the same tree and crowed:
“On the south side, the wife of a poor man is sick. A black beetle, the size of a two-year-old bull, has built a nest under her house and is sucking the woman’s blood. If you kill and burn this beetle, the poor man's wife will recover.
A third cuckoo flew in from the west and sang that a terrible disaster had happened far in the west: - the source of water had dried up - the trees had withered, the grass had burned out, people and animals were languishing from thirst. The spring that fed the fields and steppes with moisture is blocked with black heavy stone. If you move the stone, spring water will burst out from under it and people will be saved.
The cuckoos fluttered and flew away. The farm laborer thought and thought, put the ax in his sash and walked in the direction from which the sun rises.
He walked a long way or a little, finally reached a high mountain, climbed to the top and found there a piece of gold the size of a large bull's head. The farm laborer took the gold, took it to the crossroads of three roads and buried it in the ground. And he himself went west, to where people were languishing with thirst. A farm laborer came into one yurt and asked for a drink.
“We ourselves are barely alive from thirst,” the old man and the old woman answered him. – Now there is nothing more valuable than a sip of water.
“Gather me a hundred people, bring me a hundred bulls, give me a hundred shovels and you will have water,” said the farmhand.
The residents of the ulus did everything as he ordered. The farm laborer led them to the source and together they began to dig out the heavy black stone - some with a shovel, some with an ax, and some with their hands. They harnessed the oxen and moved that stone from its place. And now the spring began to bubble, and cool, clean water began to gurgle. People were delighted, rushed to the water, and began to scoop it up with buckets, barrels, and hands. Then they brought in the cattle and gave them plenty to drink. Everyone was happy and thanked the farm laborer for returning the water to them and saving them from suffering. And when they found out that he was heading towards the south, the whole ulus went to see him off.
The farm laborer walked and walked and walked and finally the southern country appeared. The farmhand found out where the sick woman lived, about whom the cuckoo told him, and called himself a famous doctor in the ulus. The husband of the sick woman, hearing about him, came with tears in his eyes:
“Save my wife,” he asked the farmhand. - Cure her..." In the morning, the farmhand gathered the neighbors, drove out from under the house a black beetle, the size of a two-year-old bull, killed it and burned it, and a miracle happened: - the woman’s health immediately returned.
Having said goodbye to the inhabitants of the ulus, the farm laborer, having dug up the gold that he had previously buried at the crossroads of three roads, went home. At home, he paid off the rich man, to whom he had always been in debt, and lived comfortably. Soon he built himself a new big house next to the rich man's house. The greedy rich man could not stand it and wanted to know how the farmhand got rich so quickly.
And the farmhand decided to punish his former master for greed and said that one day, when he was sleeping on the shore under an overturned boat, three people came out of the water and told him where the treasure was buried.
“That’s how it was,” said the rich man and left. In the evening, he climbed under an overturned boat by the river, hid and waited for the gold to be brought to him. At midnight, three robbers came to the boat and began to say that someone had taken away their gold, hidden on the top of a high mountain.
“If I could find out who took our gold,” said one robber, “I would...
At this time, the greedy rich man under the boat could not stand it and suddenly sneezed.
The robbers heard that someone was nearby, they looked under the boat, and there the rich man was sitting. They pulled him out and began to beat him: they thought that he had stolen their gold. They beat him and beat him, and then they threw him into the river.
This is how the rich man was punished for his greed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru