In one village, on the banks of the Yellow River, there lived a landowner who was very stingy and greedy. More than anything in the world he loved gold. He never did any good to anyone; he tortured his workers at work.
One day there were heavy summer rains. The water in the Yellow River rose high. Suddenly at night the river rushed ashore with a roar. Residents began to flee; to escape the flood, they climbed tall trees. The landowner also climbed a tall tree, to the very top, to wait until the water subsided. The next morning he saw that on the same tree, on a large branch, another man was sitting - his worker.
The landowner and the worker had to sit on the tree for a long time. They have been sitting for two days now, but the water is not decreasing, on the contrary, everything is increasing. The landowner and his worker started talking. The landowner boasted: “In case everything perishes, I took with me so much gold that it will last me for the rest of my life.” “But I don’t have gold,” said the worker, “and if everything perishes, I won’t have anywhere to live.” Help me and lend me a little of your gold. “No, brother, I didn’t count on you, I don’t have enough on my own.” Well, didn’t you have time to grab anything? - I only had corn cakes, and I took them with me.
Hearing about the flatbread, the landowner suddenly felt that he was very hungry and asked the worker for a flatbread. “No, master, I didn’t count on you, I don’t have enough for myself,” the worker answered him.
Two more days passed. The landowner was so hungry that he had already promised to give the worker land and build him a new house if he would give him now only a piece of flatbread. “I don’t need your promises,” the worker answered him, “you have always deceived your workers, and you will deceive me too.” If you really want to eat, buy a flatbread from me now for gold.
But the landowner did not want to part with his gold for anything in the world.
After a few more days the water subsided. The worker climbed down from the tree unharmed. But the landowner remained on the tree - he died of hunger, although his pockets were full of gold.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru